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THE DIVINE COMEDY 


BY K Gf Y3K 


DANTE ALIGHIERI ¢¥ 


TRANSLATED BY 


Pen ikY ORRANCIS- CARY 


WITH INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 
BY THE TRANSLATOR 


REVISED EDITION 


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INTRODUCTION 


T is not to be wondered at that while Petrarch, Ariosto, and 
Tasso found English translators and imitators during the 
Elizabethan period, the “ Divine Comedy ” was compara- 

tively neglected and remained untranslated. The spirit of the 
Italian Renaissance which, spreading westward, had quickened 
the intellectual life of France and England, was of a different 
order from that with which Dante had been inspired.  Dante’s 
poem was largely the product and expression of the medizeval 
conceptions of the universe embodied in the dogma of the 
Roman Church. In form and substance it was strange to the 
new era. Hence, though Chaucer had translated delightfully 
some brief passages of it, though it was read and admired by a 
few scholars and poets of succeeding generations, though Mil- 
ton recognized Dante’s greatness well enough to speak of his 
“ giving leave to Fame,” the “ Divine Comedy ” remained prac- 
tically unknown to English readers down to the end of the eigh- 
teenth century. Thomas Warton, a scholar of genial apprecia- 
tions and wide reading, could say of it as late as 1780 in his 
“History of English Poetry”: “ We are surprised that a poet 
should write one hundred cantos on hell, purgatory, and para- 
dise. But this prolixity is partly owing to the want of art and 
method.” And this of a poem unsurpassed in the whole field of 
literature precisely in these very qualities of art and method. 
Warton cites a witty and vivacious paraphrase and per- 
version by Voltaire of a passage from the poem, praises Vol- 
taire’s “ inimitable lines,” and adds, with seemingly unconscious 
humor, “ Dante thus translated would have had many more 
readers than at present.” Speaking of the Italian poets of the 
thirteenth century, among whom Dante was included, he says 
with true Anglican provincialism: ‘“ Their unnatural and ec- 
centric habits of mind and manners, . . . their scholastic 
theology, superstition, ideal love, and, above all, their chivalry, 


Classics. Vol. 34—A iii O37! 


tan i 4 


ts OR aw . 


iv INTRODUCTION 


had corrupted every true principle of life and literature, and 
consequently prevented the progress of taste and propriety.” 
But Warton himself, in spite of his false judgments, was doing 
much by his generally excellent History to promote that change 
of taste and sentiment which the course of time was rapidly 
bringing about, and which was to result in a juster appreciation 
of the poet whose “art and method” had been obscured by 
prepossessions engendered by the false doctrine which had long 
been prevalent in regard to the nature and scope of the pocket 
imagination and-to the laws of poetic expression. 

It was just after the publication of Warton’s History that 
the first English version of the “ Inferno” was published. It 
was the work of Mr. Charles Rogers, F.R.S., a man of culti- 
vated taste, whose two folio volumes of “ Prints in Imitation 
of Drawings by the Great Masters ” are still valued by lovers 
of the fine arts. His translation appeared anonymously in a 
quarto volume in 1782. I know it only by extracts from it, 
and, so far as one may judge from these specimens, it is a very 
respectable performance, in its general fidelity to the original 
and in the well-sustained measure of its blank verse. It is at 
least to be held as a superior work to the version of the “ In- 
ferno” by the Rev. Henry Boyd, an Irish clergyman, which 
appeared in 1785, and which was republished, seventeen 
years later, in 1802, with the addition of the other portions of 
the poem, forming thus the first complete English translation 
of the “ Divine Comedy.” 

Mr. Boyd’s notes and preliminary essays show that he had 
prepared himself for his task by some study of Italian history, 
but he was not a profound nor a very accurate scholar, and his 
notions of translation were of the most liberal character. His 
work is in iambic verse in stanzas of six lines, of which the 
first two, the third and sixth, the fourth and fifth rhyme. He 
makes no attempt to reproduce the qualities of the style and 
diction of the original, but is content with a free and fluent 
paraphrase of its meaning, often remoulding Dante’s sentiment 
no less than his words, and adding to his thought or subtracting 
from it, not merely according to the need of the verse, but at 
times apparently according to the moral sense of the translator, 
or his wish to supply what he esteemed defective in the original. 
The very opening stanza affords a good example of his method. 


INTRODUCTION Vv 


The words of Dante, as every reader of the “ Divine Comedy ” 
remembers, are literally: “ Midway upon the journey of our 
life | found myself in a dark wood where the right way was 
perplexed.” In Mr. Boyd’s numbers this is transformed as 
follows: 


‘* When life had labour’d up her midmost stage, 
And weary with her mortal pilgrimage, | 
Stood in suspense upon the point of Prime ; 
Far in a pathless grove I chanc’d to stray, 
Where scarce imagination dares display 
The gloomy scen’ry of the savage clime.” 


It is plain that Mr. Boyd’s work has almost as much claim to 
be called an original poem as a translation, and that its reader 
will hardly find in it a closer resemblance to the “ Divine 
Comedy ” than the image in the bowl of a spoon presents of 
the countenance reflected in it. 

Twelve years after the publication of Boyd’s version of the 
“Inferno,” the Rev. Henry Francis Cary set himself to the 
translation of the poem. He was the son of an Irishman, cap- 
tain in the British army, of good family, with a tradition of 
breeding and culture, his grandfather having been the Archdea- 
con and his great-grandfather the Bishop of Killala. Cary was 
born in 1772. While yet a boy he displayed a love of literature, a 
fondness for poetry, and a readiness at versifying. His early let- 
ters, published in the memoir of him by his son, give evidence of 
refinement of taste and unusual maturity of judgment. He was 
sent to Oxford, where he made good use of his time, and com- 
pleted his course with the degree of Master of Arts in 1796. 
In the same year he was presented to the Vicarage of Abbots 
Bromley in Staffordshire, and shortly afterward was happily 
married. His literary journal shows a wide range of miscel- 
laneous but well-selected reading in the Greek and Latin 
classics and in English, French, and Italian authors, and in 
1797 he began the translation of the “ Purgatorio ”—“ the com- 
mencement,” says his son, “of the great undertaking which 
was to establish his reputation as a poet and a scholar.” 

The first volume of Cary’s version of the “ Inferno ” was pub- 
lished in 1805, and this was followed by the second volume in 
the next year. It attracted little attention, and few copies of it 


vi INTRODUCTION 


were sold. Cary was not, however, disheartened ; he went on 
with the work, but eight years elapsed before the translation 
was finished, and it was not till 1814 that the poem appeared 
complete, in a cheap form, ‘published at the author’s expense. 
It was scarcely noticed by the press, and it did not gain many 
readers. But in the autumn of 1817 an incident occurred— 
his son says, “I might almost call it an event ’—which deter- 
mined the better fortunes of the book. This incident was the 
forming by Cary of acquaintance with Coleridge. The story 
is a pleasant one and is well told by ‘Cary’s son. Cary and his. 
family were residing for the time at Littlehampton, on the 
southern coast, where Coleridge happened to be staying. 

“Several hours of each day were spent ‘by Mr. Cary in read- 
ing the classics with the writer of this memoir, who was then 
only thirteen years of age. After ‘a morning of toil over Greek 
and Latin composition, it was our custom ‘to walk on the ‘sands 
and read Homer aloud. . . .. For several days Coleridge 
crossed us in our walk. The sound of the Greek, and especially 
the expressive countenance of the tutor, attracted his notice; 
so one day, as we met, he placed himself directly in my father’s 
way and thus accosted him: ‘Sir, yours is a face I should 
know: I am Samuel Taylor Coleridge.’ His person was not 
unknown to my father, who had already pointed him out to me 
as the great genius of our age and country. Our volume of 
Homer was shut up; but as it was ever Coleridge’s custom to 
speak (it could not be called talking or conversing) on the 
subject that first offered itself, whatever it might be, the deep 
mysteries of the blind bard engaged our attention during the 
remainder of a long walk. . . . The close of our walk 
found Coleridge at our family dinner-table. Among other 
topics of conversation Dante’s “ divine’ poem was mentioned: 
Coleridge -had never heard of my father’s translation, but took 
2 copy home with him that night. 

“On the following day when the two friends (for so they 
may from the first day of their meeting be called) met for the 
purpose of taking their daily stroll, Coleridge was able to re- 
cite whole pages of the version of Dante, and, though he had 
not the original with him, repeated passages of that also, and 
commented on the translation. Before leaving Littlehampton 
he expressed his determination to bring the version of Dante 


INTRODUCTION vii 


into public notice; and this, more than any other single person, 
he had the means of doing in his course of lectures delivered 
in London during the winter months.” 

“In the course of the next winter Coleridge fulfilled his 
promise of speaking, in one of his lectures, of Mr. Cary’s trans- 
lation. The effect of his commendation seems to have been 
great and immediate. The work, which had been published 
four years, but had remained in utter obscurity, was at once 
eagerly sought after. About 1,000 copies of the first edition, 
that remained on hand, were immediately disposed of; in less 
than three months a new edition was called for. The Edin- 
burgh and Quarterly Reviews re-echoed the praises that had 
been sounded by Coleridge, and henceforth the claims of the 
translator of Dante to literary distinction were universally 
admitted.” 

For a long time Cary’s translation held the field without a 
rival. An intelligent and spirited version of the “ Inferno,” 
in a modification of Dante’s terza rima, by Mr. I. C. Wright, 
was published in 1833, followed by the “ Purgatorio ” in 1836, 
and by the “ Paradiso” in 1840. Since then no less than 
twenty versions of the complete “ Divina Commedia,” or of one 
or more of its three divisions, have been published in England 
and America. Few of these have had more than one edition, 
but up to 1900 there are no less than twenty-seven editions of 
Cary’s translation recorded in Mr. Koch’s invaluable catalogue 
of the Dante Collection in the library of Cornell University. 
“Tt has remained,” says Dr. Garnett, in his brief memoir of 
Cary in the Dictionary of National Biography, “ the transla- 
tion which on Dante’s name being mentioned occurs first to 
the mind.” But he adds: “ Cary’s standard is lower and his 
achievement less remarkable than those of many of his succes- 
sors, but he, at least, has made Dante an Englishman, and they 
have left him half an Italian.” 

The quality and the defect of Cary’s work are indicated in 
these words. If the object of the translator is to turn Dante’s 
poem into an English one, keeping as close to the original as 
may be compatible with this end, but with a changed method of 
versification, with frequent alteration of forms of expression, 
and with constant maintenance of a manner and tone likely to 
seem less strange to the modern reader than that of the original, 


Vili INTRODUCTION 


then Cary’s version deserves the position it has achieved. It 
is always sustained at a high level; it is often felicitous in its 
rendering of the meaning of the original ; it is the work of a good 
scholar, with a cultivated taste in poetry and a sufficient com- 
mand of his native tongue. But if the reader desire to know 
exactly what Dante said, neither more nor less, and, so far as 
possible, the manner in which he said it; if he desire to study 
Dante’s poem as a monument of its own time, and to gain ac- 
quaintance with the precise nature of Dante’s genius, he must 
turn to some other one of the translations. No one of them 
will be as easy reading as Cary’s, no one will seem so English; 
but the best of them will give to him a more intimate and trust- 
worthy acquaintance with the original. 

The great qualities of Dante’s diction are its simplicity and 
its straightforwardness. There is no more striking proof of 
his poetic power than the fact that his narration is generally 
little less direct than if it were in prose, and the order of the 
words has the natural sequence, without inversions or apparent 
elaboration. Mr. Cary was, perhaps, too much under the in- 
fluence of the taste of the century in which he was born to value _ 
at their worth those qualities of diction which go so far to de- 
termine style, and which are, indeed, difficult to preserve in an- 
other language. Too often where Dante uses simply a proper 
name, Mr. Cary prefers an epithet or paraphrase. Thus Virgil 
is rendered remote by the designation of “the Mantuan ”; 
Hippocrates is obscured under the title of “the great Coan”; 
Juvenal becomes “ Aquinum’s bard,” and Euripides “ the bard 
of Tella”; Thetis, “the bride sea-born of Peleus” ; the cock of 
Gallura, “ shrill Gallura’s bird.”” Where Dante says, speaking 
of the help from heaven given to him for his poem, “ Minerva 
breathes and Apollo guides me, and nine Muses point out to me 
the Bears,’ Mr. Cary translates, 


‘< Minerva breathes the gale, 
Apollo guides me; and another Nine 
To my rapt sight the arctic beams reveal.” 


‘Where Dante says, “ We rejoiced,” Mr. Cary gives us, “Joy 
seized us straight.” Dante says, “ The sea closed over us”; 


Mr. Cary, “ And over us the booming billows closed.” 


INTRODUCTION ix 


Such illustrations as these of infidelity to the simple direct- 
ness of Dante’s diction may be drawn from every canto. Each 
in itself is, perhaps, of little consequence, but their cumulative 
result is to deprive the poem in large measure of its most strik- 
ing characteristic, that of being the narrative of an actual ex- 
perience. The reader of Dante is reading a true story, told, 
in all its narrative parts, with straightforward and convinc- 
ing simplicity and with unrivalled charm of measure and 
thyme. The reader of Mr. Cary’s Dante is reading a fiction, 
told in excellent verse, by which he is entertained, but seldom 
so moved as to lose the sense of its unreality. 

But in spite of its defects as a translation, Mr. Cary’s work 
is likely to retain its popularity as an English poem, and on the 
whole deserves to do so. The notes with which it is provided 
are excellent, and show the wide reading of an accomplished 
man of letters. The scholar who wishes to acquire an exact 
conception of the form and contents of the “ Divine Comedy ” 
will seek other aid, but for the general reader Cary’s translation 


will suffice. 
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Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 
Canto 


Canto 


CONTENTS 


PELL 

PAGE 
Breck aly toile tins we beat a 6s roe ee oe Ae I 
EMEP YEOH aS ral os nts Siete oad ck Kolule wae oles ed wa aed 5 
RT er cate es ta Ctra ela heh ikl s cilkivin d o-wluate Sob or Ce Own 9 
Es rials Liu Pes fe ae scuba eh odie stash ee ce ied Pare yWERP os 13 
eS) Pek foesittie', Ciara \ lee nluRicg Wie one Fie Saas poe aye) 0 Bhd Pelle 17 
rete hate oN ed Oh SF INL oie Ag Mie Olga elelpValla ale me hes 21 
PE Cire ela Uo iat oes ered als sic armless ee Gate e oie 25 
OER Es Poce te enter e'e 8h bev ain nly al tceleoe wate be we Sap oe Oe 29 
EM 5. oar, Cid wipe SA eS Ab, |, sess: Aivig Se y Giese soiwin(s aiehd elec Se 35 
MRE Te et HS eC Ds hche y NOcies, ASG ote hab sae hele etal iceONW adae 37 
RMR Io SPN Saha ga ea ies ed Gay elke cele ola ate vtal¥ wrote a ake 42 
MEME she 8 YIM, yr cb eigen sin lel e es ake a ee ER MER 46 
eNO ar Sg aie 5c Ws goals xe Odile Sie me wee wale eo eee 50 
TNE tN oo 9 Se ok aeve' i) ye thie Slolale ¢ ie oo edn OB ey 55 
CNMI reese Sansa ei SSL, eg 2 Sa Wik y Sie te etre 8 ROO HE ein 59 
SME ar PA ey a etl Ss a Bars ciarq ab Wie Noe « Cobalt Re Whoa 63 
EES. G is. bs Lece one Goes eudeeses <> BES PROG RAR Cs) et pee 67 
MP IEE AES caters Gao 2 ie $ 6 ao CA ea & Roly ad UR op 71 
DMEM ry eh he a ee eh ee ol wit tals Gis Se Sek ae 
EIS A Date Gis ctl dies eleto d's: A ohee e vie oe eos AOR DESO N S 76 
SMI et Gee ng 3) eit & lao. ces x olen o kc» aldhgn «Od OU SEE Se 83 
ERNIE ee ee are eG alee coy Glee tae « Rade LEMUR DEA ois 87 
REED Ta ce eS ien) oS sora eecee Shela Mase boakd 6 aclayhid bee Ot Ola tbs QI 
EME MAW ER aba T Aa eyd Gel, ea ihe die'e Widig blade wis Gab cob ge Wrercieree 96 
AMR Lane tale bige iain hts BAR SED viele kid om bo Sidelela’ ei ork wea eels a 100 
rea er Cnt eee ee tat etek oS peat h lS igre, be ois calnty Bealinle “po Dateie lee Wt at eas 104 
Peas EER torneo coe ad ath ty ots Wie Wve k a ote’ a loco 4 Bi otae’ Ale Sbaatea i o's 108 
OAL ML SOS) SC CS NOU NE AE oe a ED ER ioe APO ec rar LOL? ae 112 
We in irre aa ee Ue roe hic leca ly a deh b Bare aT Aenea Re Le LL 
PE serrate Pach ait VE sas Wut arl ae o Steeles aie ae Pe Ro RM ee 121 
as GY SM od SS UPAR RS SR Re AAAES I OR UP bre ACL eae 125 
EE Ler renee Wren a el iene cea Dielg tg ws! da eae tiara wa en ek Rees 129 
ea NOME MDa etek ete OLN yal uit setae chelate PEERS oe 133 
DOO. VAR GEU AG Uy re ale gs ais Aga ge Ps REESE AAS Balle, MAb 138 


vei Bee CONTENTS 


PURGATORY 

PAGE 
CIATED GE ers ae oR a Se ee NOE One HOE eee cee en toate 143 
CERIO Loess x eee CE a ie SO Une ted tee cade a ee 147 
Cobah CouD © & Rapep alana ante eranc. Ori WAN -aak Spe. (ln irs AO ape a 151 
Canto sly ee he Ee Cee ne Tt © cae eeee 155 
GSATILO VS Ss we are Seles ae han Pas ie 5 RIES aE es ae 159 
Cantor Vibe Pak oe a ks B Winsoe Us os cia we ba Caine Le SL ae es ee 163 
ATO ONT oe ain ein 4 win ole OW eottiete Biaela haw ace ee Meas at a tee 168 
Cantor Vil ie ecco ee aces oe cn e Daia oe Ce wikia re ee 173 
Canto cE Re ee Se Care hee 0d ane ee tee ane ea TEN oo 177 
GATOS A os ke cies Sela soa ocale on shee EIU Seta eee ae ee eae eee 181 
RFANTO ONT O Siie sie Cit dere hep Uk awe os Coe eo DERE Ate een een te 185 
Canto TEA eee See ee Sc ae oheis as CU AUR UR Le Rea Ree 189 
CANTO POC Ld octet g ote ee ees aie oe nce ah eese ces eee oe Bee er 193 
Canto XPV Cer ee Re LR vies te oats eke a atete nen ni ce tal oe ee 197 
Canto vA Vas Geel & ate tate e Sede hoe here wien ee Soetok b ent re eee ima ate en as Oe 202 
CaNtOr: Vea o Se oe CESSES Rehan bate Aen Ee eee Aree aia 206 
Canto 2X VAT Scot wes oii be ate Oa ee ate tate es Ue 210 
GATE VD. VA ULE Sea ileia o:aln a os oe Cee nO Wel Sei ee eee nee eee 214 
RSA TE GN LOE Grate ste cll bE pie otaroe a lalate nee a Salk we vated Grete Ok ea eee 218 
Be Vil ca 3G, CG Ae SAN Anan Sener ee See ERE bial nh tak baey aes Ls Ba 223 
CO ree). G CCU ERAS EO, URE SM cag ae baton cr egret TEs 228 
Ge Ter cagee. OG & Mle: Seo a ihe AE EAL nt e AiG Res RR Ay Lo OT os 232 
CANO U RR TET orn ee ae 2 a Hee Wk wa ee eee ce ee 236 
(TATED EXIT VSG SS ote Sos lace Stanats oe radiate Pete aes etch Fon oun an te 240 
Ganto Oe REV Os eh BN Ta tetas rola gies tg tetas atetale se ee 244 
CAnitO OAV Lise Dev oaton mie REE EA ES SOM Vis SS lan eG wien Cee es 248 
CantovoO RV TIAA eee er eee ee cue ee cuht al ae oe eee 252 
Cantos SV LE ee ae ete te atacu aie oe aloe elateoten Os Wane eae ee 256 
Canto: OX a eee ig ne Soe Oo 8 tae ee 260 
Canto 2X RR ee a Ee URE a hin, SIL eee ee eee 265 
Canto SRT a ci ch Siatitahs a ler A ian tat tene lal Gels teeta ae Fem eee 269 
CAE A CLIP coo ceteiacahe wie eta iare alatatg oh amis eee nll ein eh ee 273 
CANEO ERS OULD 5 Deeatetere wen pele acetate aatista's ahs lakra'e he iote lel ele creer ree 278 

PARADISE 

CSATIEG SEO CE BOG estou vis lates Wins sc ae CA ee ae ee 283 
MEATIECY PED fossa plans atathea's osc w/the otal atehdve eiatate clans Meshes te he’s bc ere 287 
(GeV a) fetty OB LAA eae Ae ARCO bet Mia a RS ee 201 
Costu 4 DS A AMADOR RPAH TAMA MAAR RISTO ss 205 
CATER Bek ia bie w aba y wnccea slcete d alans 5 OUR aoe ee ee 209 
RGOTIEO GV Aisles go 0's Vo we watele decal alprele ovslp esta Nie w cial aaa ala once eee 303 
RTADLO DV A Bay's eis vo. e sins a eee dee Mare ea Se 308 
GATOR eos ga wy! vial ain! Seed anit en Mae ace clita thie ne eat 312 
CONEG ERP SE oie doe kig eM E ON ta te ae 317, 


CONTENTS xii 


PAGE 
Canto XI .+...... Peres Uae «ik eka AUER PRR CAS ae ead Kararais 7) 
en ge ila dco wlecls dak undgnc oi pus a'ee sole a de teed 6 331 
Se N NEN yc ovis ig 25 bg cro le B's a ici. # bic wield soua bea oa8 cesrale Glo 336 
Ee aie. Wie'e ws are oe REM ECE ERR’ doe bee 341 
oe yes ahaa vie. a afe'gin's pS pe Vuln ge Wulong eivicletie been er 344 
ME PERO) Plea a SIS Soc in'e fois Gad © 0's, joie Bios eae eee Meise 349 
DEMME Ee A ro CO Gg oie. bbe. 5 x dy acovnte aC aus ween Gu eteues 354 
NE Pest ccksy LS dsteteo a vicshh ot a eels e peas se els wede 358 
ee ck Yay cca owes aIMigiaiulace 4 6 bb bd «A wile ie gh aoe Re Oh 362 
EE er nr a Pls oie creek gules s ba sine boo oe OO LOS 367 
ER ee ee aia fisteiale: a esau reels cleat bv Gane a at 371 
RMN ERO Sc Lae te ad Cache b Gowie eos ga Guam Bios wee ateveee 375 
Reet rarer SS ciate sh lowiela bore bles & ob co ibieee! vil obatelorye 6 380 
NS Ne eS Sci ee eg ck his itis o weledcce cuwies o's aaeaws 384 
PIN SO ele en ce Sse tcigia siain'sy ob cna i b's vine Severs 388 
RR RD hte tte ik, ac tacin gia’ welvin bins wid es va cleeibiate 392 
RE eR. duets wes oe oh 6 vids ie Cano cases eldeeres 306 
08 RS a bb rate heart nt aeaes 400 
ENE EON ek are Bic laig eat sie e cits ct bas twice au wos ueee tna 404 
I fire ei yo gale oa 6 sv cleat ss p.sfacc O2 vinieh be cvaepens 408 
TE el oie a's views 6 a Woe Wale Maw ele algble pele bun aeets 412 
MN Re TPNeeOL Ia. ge aie 'etg (ial vieic k's on eiele Shine bots ae oe ole 416 


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THE DIVINE COMEDY 


HELL 


CANTO I 


ARGUMENT.—The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and 
being hindered by certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, 
is met by Virgil, who promises to show him the punishments of 
Hell, and aftérward of Purgatory; and that he shall then be con- 
ducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He follows the Roman poet. 

Naren eeeeee 


N the midway? of this our mortal life, 
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray 
Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell, 
It were no easy task, how savage wild 
That forest, how robust and rough its growth, 
Which to remember only, my dismay 
Renews, in bitterness not far from death. 
Yet, to discourse of what there good befel, 
All else will I relate discover’d there. 
How first I enter’d it I scarce can say, 
Such sleepy dulness in that _instant_weigh’d 
eee toga ohen the rue cath T ieth, 
But when a mountain’s foot I reach’d, where closed 
The valley that had pierced my heart with dread, 
I look’d aloft, and saw his shoulders broad 
Already vested with that plane éam, 
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way. 


*“In the midway.” The era of the bow, the highest point of which is 
eo is intended by these words to be those well framed by nature, at chee 
to the thirty-fifth year of the thirty- -fifth del 
t’s age, A.D. 1300. In his Convito, * That planet’s beam.”’ The sua, 
uman life is compared to an arch or 


- &£ 


, THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Then was a little respite to the fear, 
That in my heart’s recesses deep had lain 
All of that night, so pitifully past: 
And as a man, with difficult short breath, 
Forespent with toiling, ’scaped from sea to shore, 
Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands 
At gaze; e’en so my spirit, that yet fail’d, 
Struggling with terror, turn’d to view the straits 
That none hath passed and lived. My weary frame 
After short pause recomforted, again 
I journey’d on over that lonely steep, 
The hinder foot still firmer.* Scarce the ascent 
Began, when, lo! a,panther,* nimble, light, 
And cover’d with a speckled skin, appear’d; 
Nor, when it saw me, vanish’d; rather strove 
To check my onward going; that oft-times, 
With purpose to retrace my steps, I turn’d. 

The hour was morning’s prime, and on his way 
Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,°® 
That with him rose when Love divine first moved 
Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope 
All things conspired to fill me, the gay skin 
Of that swift animal, the matin dawn, - 
And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chased. 
And by new dread succeeded, when in view 
A lion came, ’gainst me as it appear’d, 
With his heat field aloft and hunger-mad, 
That e’en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf 
Was at his hegls, who in her leanness seem'd 

ull of all wants, and many a land hath made 
Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear 
O’erwhelm’d me, at the sight of her appall’d, 
That of the height all hope I lost. As one, 
Who, with his gain elated, sees the time 
When all unawares is gone, he inwardly 
Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I, 
Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace, 


3“ The hinder foot.” In ascending 5** With those stars.” The sun was 


a hill the weight of the body rests on in Aries, in which sign he supposes it 
the hinder foot. to have begun its course at the crea- 


#**A panther.”” Pleasure or luxury. tion. 


HELL : 3 


Who coming o’er against me, by degrees 
Impell’d me where the sun in silence rests. 

While to the lower space with backward step 
I fell, my ken*discern’d the form of one 

ose voice seem’d faint through long disuse of speech. 

When him in that great desert I espied, 
“Have mercy on me,” cried I out aloud, 
“Spirit! or living man! whate’er thou be.” 

Ue answered: “ Now not man, man once I was, 
And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both 
By country, when the power of Julius yet 
Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past, 
Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time 
Of fabled deities and false. A bard 
Was I, and made Anchises’ upright son 
The subject of my song, who came from Troy, 
When the flames prey’d on Ilium’s haughty towers. 
But thou, say wherefore to such perils past 
Return’st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount 
Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?” 
“ And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring, 
From which such copious floods of eloquence 
Have issued?” I with front abash’d replied. 
“Glory and light of all the tuneful train! 
May it avail me, that I long with zeal 
Have sought thy volume, and with love immense 
Have conn’d it o’ef. My master thou, and guide! 
Thou he from whom alone [ha Ive 
That style, which for its beauty into fame 
Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled. 
O save me from her, thou illustrious sage! 
For every vein and pulse throughout my frame 
She hath made tremble.” He, soon as he saw 
That I was weeping, answer’d, “ Thou must needs 
Another way pursue, if thou wouldst ’scape 
From out that savage wilderness. ‘This beast, 
At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none 
To pass, and no less hinderance makes than death: 
So bad and so accursed in her kind, 
That never sated is her ravenous will, 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Still after food more craving than before. 

To many an animal in wedlock vile 

She fastens, and shall yet to many more, 

Until that greyhound® come, who shall destroy 


Her with sharp pain. 


He will not life support 


By earth nor its base metals, but by love, 
Wisdom, and virtue; and his land shall be 


The land ’twixt either Feltro.’ 


In his might 


Shall safety to Italia’s plains arise, 

For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure, 
Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell. 

He, with incessant chase, through every town 
Shall worry, until he to hell at length 

Restore her, thence by envy first let loose. 

I, for thy profit pondering, now devise 

That thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide, 
Will lead thee hence through an eternal space, 
Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see 
Spirits of old tormented, who invoke 

A second death;* and those next view, who dwell 
Content in fire,® for that they hope to come, 
Whene’er the time may be, among the blest, 
Into whose regions if thou then desire 

To ascend, a spirit worthier?® than I 

Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart, 
Thou shalt be left: for that Almighty King, 
Who reigns above, a rebel to his law 

Adjudges me; and therefore hath decreed 

That, to his city, none through me should come. 
He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds 


His citadel and throne. 
Whom there he chuses! ” 


O happy those, 


I to him in few: — 


“ Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore, 
I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse 


6“ That greyhound.” This passage 
has been commonly understood as a 
eulogium on the liberal spirit of his 
eeronses patron, Can Grande della 

cala. 


7“ ?Twixt either Feltro.”” Verona, 
the country of Can della Scala, is situ- 
ated between Feltro, a city in the Marca 
Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, a city in 
the territory of Urbino. 


8“ A second death.” ‘* And in these 
days men shall seek death, and shall 
not find it; and shall desire to die, and 
death shall flee from them.” Rey. ix. 6. 

©“ Content in fire.” The spirits in 
Purgatory. 

10 “ A spirit worthier.” Beatrice, who 
conducts the Poet through Paradise. 


HELL 5 


I may escape) to lead me where thou said’st, 

That I Saint Peter’s gate*? may view, and those 

Who, as thou tell’st, are in such dismal plight.” 
Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued. 


CANTO II 


ArcuMENT.—After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to 
their works, he shows that, on a consideration of his own strength, 
he doubted whether it sufficed for the journey proposed to him, 


but that, being comforted by Virgil, he at last took courage, and 
followed hign as his guide and master. 
ed 


OW was the day departing, and the air, 

N Imbrown’d with shadows, from their toils released 
All animals on earth; and I alone 
Prepared myself the conflict to sustain, 
Both of sad pity, and that perilous road, 
Which my unerring memory shall retrace. 
O Muses! O high genius! now vouchsafe 
Your aid. O mind! that all I saw hast kept 
Safe in a written record, here thy worth 
And eminent endowments come to proof, 
I thus began: “ Bard! thou who art my guide, 

Consider well, if virtue be in me 
Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise 
Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius’ sire,* 
Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among 
The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there 
Sensibly present. Yet if heaven’s great Lord, 
Almighty foe to ill, such favor show’d 
In contemplation of the high effect, 
Both what and who from him should issue forth, 
It seems in reason’s judgment well deserved; 
Sith he of Rome and of Rome’s empire wide, 
In heaven’s empyreal height was chosen sire: 
Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordain’d 
1 ** Saint Peter’s gate.” The gate of guarded by an angel placed om that 


Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be station by St. Peter. 
1 ** Silvius’ sire.”” 7Eneas. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And stablish’d for the holy place, where sits 
Who to great Peter’s sacred chair succeeds. 

He from this journey, in thy song renown’d, 
Learn’d things, that to his victory gave rise 
And to the papal robe. In after-times 

The chosen vessel? also travel’d there, 

To bring us back assurance in that faith 
Which is the entrance to salvation’s way. 

But I, why should I there presume? or who 
Permits it? not Atneas I, nor Paul. 

Myself I deem not worthy, and none else 

Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then 

I venture, fear it will in folly end. 

Thou, who art wise, better my meaning know’st, 
Than I can speak.” As one, who unresolves 
What he hath late resolved, and with new thoughts 
Changes his purpose, from his first intent 
Removed; e’en such was I on that dun coast, 
Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first 

So eagerly embraced. “If right thy words 

I scan,” replied that shade magnanimous, 
“Thy soul is by vile fear assail’d, which oft 

So overcasts a man, that he recoils 

From noblest resolution, like a beast 

At some false semblance in the twilight gloom. 
That from this terror thou mayst free thyself, 

I will instruct thee why I came, and what 

I heard in that same instant, when for thee 
Grief touch’d me first. I was among the tribe, 
Who rest suspended,? when a dame, so blest 
And lovely I besought her to command, 

Call’d me; her eyes were brighter than the star 
Of day; and she, with gentle voice and soft, 
Angelically tuned, her speech address’d: 

‘O courteous shade of Mantua! thou whose fame 
Yet lives, and shall live long as nature lasts! 

A friend, not of my fortune but myself, 

On the wide desert in his road has met 


8“* The chosen vessel.” St. Paul. in Limbo, neither admitted to a state 
8“ Who rest suspended.” te spirits of glory nor doomed to punishment. 


HELL 7 


Hindrance so greaf, that he through fear has turn’d. 
Now much I dread lest he past help have stray’d, 
And I be risen too late for his relief, 
From what in heaven of him I heard. Speed now, 
And by thy eloquent persuasive tongue, 
And by all means for his deliverance meet, 
Assist him. So to me will comfort spring. 
I, who now bid thee on this errand forth, 
Am Beatrice;* from a place I come 
Revisited with joy. Love brought me thence, 
Who prompts my speech. When in my Master’s sight 
I stand, thy praise to him I oft will tell.’ 

“She then was silent, and I thus began: 
‘O Lady! by whose influence alone 
Mankind excels whatever is contain’d 
Within that heaven which hath the smallest orb, 
So thy command delights me, that to obey, 
If it were done already, would seem late. 
No need hast thou further to speak thy will: 
Yet tell the reason, why thou art not loth 
To-leave that ample space, where to return 
Thou burnest, for this centre here beneath.’ 

“She then: ‘Since thou so deeply wouldst inquire, 
I will instruct thee briefly why no dread 
Hinders my entrance here. Those things alone 
Are to be fear’d whence evil may proceed; 
None else, for none are terrible beside. 
I am so framed by God, thanks to his grace! 
That any sufferance of your misery 
Touches me not, nor flame of that fierce fire 
Assails me. In high heaven a blessed dame® 
Resides, who mourns with such effectual grief 
That hinderance, which I send thee to remove, 
That God’s stern judgment to her will inclines.’ 
To Lucia,® calling, her she thus bespake: 
‘Now doth thy faithful servant need thy aid, 
And I commend him to thee.’ At her word 


¢* Beatrice.” The daughter of Folco 5‘*A blessed dame.” The Divine 
Portinari, who is here invested with the Mercy. |. ; : 
character of celestial wisdom or the- 8“ Lucia.” The enlightening Grace 


ology. of Heaven; as it is commonly explained. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY, 


Sped Lucia, of all cruelty the foe, 
And coming to the place, where I abode 
Seated with Rachel, her of ancient days, 
She thus address’d me: “ Thou true praise of God! 
Beatrice! why is not thy succor lent 
To him, who so much loved thee, as to leave 
For thy sake all the multitude admires? 
_ Dost thou not hear how pitiful his wail, 
Nor mark the death, which in the torrent flood, 
Swol’n mightier than a sea, him struggling holds?” 
Ne’er among men did any with such speed 
Haste to their profit, flee from their annoy, 
As, when these words were spoken, I came here, 
Down from my blessed seat, trusting the force 
Of thy pure eloquence, which thee, and all 
Who well have mark’d it, into honor bring.’ 
“When she had ended, her bright beaming eyes 
Tearful she turn’d aside; whereat I felt 
Redoubled zeal to serve thee. As she will’d, 
Thus am I come: I saved thee from the beast, 
Who thy near way across the goodly mount 
Prevented. What is this comes o’er thee then? 
Why, why dost thou hang back? why in thy breast 
Harbor vile fear? why hast not courage there, 
And noble daring; since three maids,’ so blest, 
Thy safety plan, e’en in the court of heaven; 
And so much certain good my words forebode? ” 
As florets, by the frosty air of night 
Bent down suet closed, when day has blanch’ d their leaves, 
Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems; 
So was my fainting vigor new restored, 
And to my heart such kindly courage ran, 
That I as one undaunted soon replied: 
“O full of pity she, who undertook 
My succor! and thou kind, who didst perform 
So soon her true behest! With such desire 
Thou hast disposed me to renew my voyage, 
That my first purpose fully is resumed. 


t“ Three maids.”” The Divine Mercy, Lucia and Beatrice. 


HELL | 9 


Lead on: one only will is in us both. 
Th guide, my master thou, and lord.” 
So spake I; and when he had onward moved, 


I enter’d on the deep and woody way. 


CANTO III 


ArcuMENT.—Dante, following Virgi], cames to the gate of Hell; where, 
after having read the dreadful words that are written thereon, they 


both enter. Here, as he understands from Virgil, those were pun- 
ished who had passed their time (for living it could not be called) 
in a state of apathy and indifference both to good and evil. Then 
pursuing their way, they arrive at the river Acheron; and there find 
the old ferryman Charon, who fakes thefSpirits) over to the opposite 


shoré; which, as soon as Dante reaches, hej i ith terror, 
and falls into a trance. 


HROUGH me you pass into the city of woe: 
Through me you pass into eternal pain: 
Through me among the people lost for aye. 

Justice the founder of my fabric moved: 
To rear me was the task of power divine, 
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.t 
Before me things create were none, save things 
Eternal, and eternal I endure. | 
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” 

Such characters, in color dim, I mark’d 
Over a portal’s lofty arch inscribed. 
Whereat I thus: “ Master, these words import 
Hard meaning.” He as one prepared replied: 
“Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave; 
Here be vile fear extinguish’d. We are come 
Where I have told thee we shall see the souls 
To misery doom’d, who intellectr ood 
Have lost.”” And when his hand he had stretch’d forth 
TO mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer’d, 
Into that secret place he led me on. 

Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans, 


ower divine, The three Persons “of the Blessed 
mein Sane Aine primeval love.” Trinity. 


Celestine order, and printed at Milan 
in 1701, in which an attempt is made 


passage. Lombardi would apply it to Pope Celestine as 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Resounded through the air pierced by no star, 
That e’en I wept at entering. Various tongues, 
Horrible languages, outcries of woe, 
Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, 
With hands together smote that swell’d the sounds, 
Made up a tumult, that forever whirls 
Round through that air with solid darkness stain’d, 
Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies. 

I then, with error yet encompast, cried: 
“O master! what is this I hear? what race 
Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?” 

He thus to me: “ This miserable fate 
Suffer the wretched souls of those, who lived 
Without or praise or blame, with that ill band 
Of angels mix’d, who nor rebellious proved, 

Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves 

Were only. From his bounds Heaven drove them forth 
Not to impair his lustre; nor the depth 

Of Hell receives them, lest the accursed tribe 

Should glory thence with exultation vain.” 

I then: “ Master! what doth aggrieve them thus, 
That they lament so loud?” He straight replied: 
“That will I tell thee briefly. j[hese of death 
No hope may entertain: and their blind life 
So meanly passes, that all other lots 
They envy. Fame of them the world hath none, 
Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both. 
Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.” 

And I, who straightway look’d, beheld a flag, 
Which whirling ran around so rapidly, 

That it no pause obtain’d: and following came 
Such a long train of spirits, I should ne’er 
Have thought that death so many had despoil’d. 

When some of these I recognized, I saw _ 

And knew the shade of him, who to base fear ? 


ee Who to base fear some one of Dante’s fellow-citizens, 


3 
Yielding, abjured his high estate.-——”’ who, refusing, through avarice or want 


This is commonly understood of Celes- of spirit, to support the party of the 
tine V, who abdicated the papal power 
in 1294. Venturi mentions a work writ- occasion of the miseries that_befel them. 
ten by Innocenzio Barcellini, of the But the testimony of Fazio degli 
Uberti, who lived so near the time of 
our author, seems almost decisive on 


to put a different interpretation on this this point. He i eae s iy of the 
eing in Hell. 


Bianchi at Florence, had been the main 


HELL - 


Yielding, abjured his high estate. Forthwith 
I understood, for certain, this the tribe 
Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing 
And to his foes. These wretches, who ne’er lived, 
Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung 
By wasps and hornets, which bedew’d their cheeks 
With blood, that, mix’d with tears, dropp’d to their feet, 
And by disgustful worms was gather’d there. 

Then looking further onward, I beheld | 
A throng upon the shore of a great stream: 
Whereat [ thus: “Sir! grant me now to know 
Whom here we view, and whence impell’d they seem 
So eager to pass o’er, as I discern | 
Through the blear light?” He thus to me in few: 
“This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive 
Beside the woful tide of Acheron.” 
- Then with eyes downward cast, and fill’d with shame, 
Fearing my words offensive to his ear, 


Till we had reactrd the tiver-t-from- speech 
Abstain’ds And lo! toward us in a bark 
Comes on an old man, hoary white with eld, 


Crying, “ Woe to you, wicked spirits! hope not 
Ever to see the sky again. I come 


To take you to the o 
to eternal darkness, there to dwell 
In fierce fIr~t thou, who there 


Standest;-tive-spiritT get thee hence, and leave 

These who are dead.” But soon as he beheld 

I left them not, “‘ By other way,” said he, 

“By other haven shalt thou come to shore, 

Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat 

Must carry.” Then to him thus spake my guide: 

“Charon! thyself torment not: so ’tis will’d, 

Where will and power are one: ask thou no more.” 
Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks 

Of him, the boatman o’er the livid lake, , 

Around whose eyes glared wheeling flames. Meanwhile 

Those spirits, faint and naked, color changed, | 

And gnash’d their teeth, soon as the cruel words - 

- They heard. God and their parents they blasphemed, 


@ 


12 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The human kind, the place, the time, and seed, 
That did engender them and give them birth. 
Then all together sorely wailing drew 
To the curst strand, that every man must pas: 
Who fears not God. Charop, demoniac form, 
With eyes of burning coal, collects them all, 
Beckoning, and each, that lingers, with his oar 
Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves. 
One still another following, till the bough 
Strews all its honors on the earth beneath; 
E’en in like manner Adam’s evil brood 
Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore, 
Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.® 
Thus go they over through the umber’d wave; 
And ever they on the opposing bank 
Be landed, on this side another throng 
Still gathers. ‘ Son,” thus spake the courteous guide, 
“ Those who die subject to the wrath of God 
All here together come from every clime 
And to o’erpass the river are not loth: 
For so Heaven’s justice goads them on, that fear 
Is turn’d into desire. Hence ne’er hath past 
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain, 
Now mayst thou know the import of his words.” 
This said, the gloomy region trembling shook 
So terribly, that yet with clammy dews 
Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast, 
That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame, 
Which all my senses conquer’d quite, and_I 


own dropp’ ith sudden slumber seized. 


3“ As falcon at his call.” This is Vel- a bird that is enticed to the cage by the 
lutello’s eviasaes and seems pref- call of another.” 
erable to that commonly given: ‘as 


HELL 13 


CANTO IV 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet, being ro , and follow- 
ing his guide onward, descends into Limbo, which is the first circle 


of Hell, where he finds the souls of those, who, although they have 
lived virtuously and have not to suffer for great sins, nevertheless, 


through SR ar PO Sang epee PEE VRIIR Hence he 
is led on by Virgil to descend into the second circle. 
ROKE the deep slumber in my brain a crash 
Of heavy thunder, that I shook myselt, 


As one by main force roused. Risen upright, 
My rested eyes I moved around, and search’d 
With fixed ken, to know what place it was 
Wherein I stood. For certain, on the brink 
I found me of the lamentable vale, 
The dread abyss, that joins a thundrous sound 
Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep, 
And thick with clouds o’erspread, mine eye in vain 
Explored its bottom, nor could aught discern. 

“ Now let us to the blind world there beneath 
Descend,” the bard began, all pale of look: 

“I go the first, and thou shalt follow next.” 

Then I, his alter’d hue perceiving, thus: 
“How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread, 
Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt? ” 

He then: “ The anguish of that race below 
With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear 
Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way 
Urges to haste.”” Onward, this said, he moved; 

And entering led me with him, on the bounds 
Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss. He 

Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard 
Except of sighs, that made the eternal air 
Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief 
Felt by those multitudes, many and vast, 

Of men, women, and infants. Then to me 

The gentle guide: “ Inquirest thou not what spirits 
Are these which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass 
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin 


Were blameless; and if aught they merited, 
Classics. Vol. 34—B 


14 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


It profits not, since baptism was not theirs, 
The portal 1 fo thy faith. If they before 

The Gospel lived, they served not God aright; 
And among such am I. For these defects, 
And for no other evil, we are lost; 

Only so far afflicted, that we live 

Desiring without hope.” Sore grief assail’d 
My heart at hearing this, for well I knew 
Suspended in that Limbo many a soul 


Of mighty worth. 


“O tell me, sire revered! 


Tell me, my master!” I began, through wish 
Of full assurance in that holy faith 


Which vanquishes all error; ‘ 


“say, did e’er 


Any, or through his own or other’s merit, 


Come forth from thence, who afterward was blest? 


39 


Piercing the secret purport ? of my speech, 
He answer’d: “I was new to that estate 
When I beheld a puissant one ® arrive 
Amongst us, with victorious trophy crown’d. 
He forth the shade of our first parent drew, 


Abel his child, and 


oah righteous man, 


Of Moses lawgiver for“faith approved, 
Of patriarch Abraham, and David king, 
Israel with his sire and with his sons, 
Nor without Rachel whom so hard he won, 
And others many more, whom he to bliss 
Exalted. Before these, be thou assured, 
No spirit of human kind was ever saved.” 
We, while he spake, ceased not our onward road, 
Still passing through the wood; for so I name 


Those spirits thick beset. 


We were not far 


On this side from the summit, when I kenn’d 
A flame, that o’er the darken’d hemisphere 
Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space 
Were distant, not so far but I in part 


1** Portal.”’ ‘ Porta della fede.’? This 
was an alteration made in the text by 
the Academicians della Crusca, on the 
authority, as it would appear, of only 
two manuscripts. The other reading is, 
** parte della fede,” “‘ part of the faith.” 

2“ Secret purport.” Lombardi well 
observes that’ Dante seems to have been 


restrained by awe and reverence from 
uttering the name of Christ in this 
place of torment; and that for the 
same cause, probably, it does not occur 
once thronghout the whole of this first 
part of the poem. 

8“ A p.issant one.” Our Saviour. 


HELL 


Discover’d that a tribe in honor high 

That place possess’d. ‘O thou, who every art 
And science valuest! who are these, that boast 
Such honor, separate from all the rest? ” 

He answer’d: “ The renown of their great names, 
That echoes through your world above, acquires 
Favor in Heaven, which holds them thus advanced.” 
Meantime a voice I heard: ‘“ Honor the bard 
Sublime! his shade returns, that left us late!” 

No sooner ceased the sound, than I beheld 
Four mighty spirits toward us bend their steps, 
Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad. 

When thus my master kind began: “ Mark him, 
Who in his right hand bears that falchion keen, 
The other three preceding, as their lord. 

This is that Homer, of all bards supreme: 

Flaccus the next, in satire’s vain excelling; 

The third is Naso; Lucan is the last. 

Because they all that appellation own, 

With which the voice singly accosted me, 

Honoring they greet me thus, and well they judge.” 

So I beheld united the bright school 
Of him the monarch of sublimest song,* 

That o’er the others like an eagle soars. 

When they together short discourse had held, 
They turn’d to me, with salutation kind 
Beckoning me; at the which my master smiled: 
Nor was this all; but greater honor still 
They gave me, for they made me of their tribe; 
And I was sixth amid so learn’d a band. 

Far as the luminous beacon on we pass’d, 
Speaking of matters, then befitting well 
To speak, now fitter left untold. At foot 
Of a magnificent castle we arrived, 

Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and round 
Defended by a pleasant stream. O’er this 

As o’er dry land we pass’d. Next, through seven eatce 
I with those sages enter’d, and we came 

Into a mead with lively verdure fresh. 


“The monarch of sublimest song.’”?’ Homer, 


16 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


There dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around 
Majestically moved, and in their port 
Bore eminent authority: they spake 
Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet. 
We to one side retired, into a place 
Open and bright and lofty, whence each one. 
Stood manifest to view. Incontinent, 
There on the green enamel of the plain 
Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight 
I am exalted in my own esteem. 
Electra > there I saw accompanied 
By many, among whom Hector I knew, 
Anchises’ pious son, and with hawk’s eye 
_ Cesar all arm’d, and by Camilla there 
Penthesilea. On the other side, 
Old king Latinus seated by his child 
Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld 
Who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Cato’s wife 
Marcia, with Julia * and Cornelia there; 
And sole apart retired, the Soldan fierce 7. 
Then when a little more I raised my brow, 
I spied the master of the sapient throng,® 
Seated amid the philosophic train. 
Him all admire, all pay him reverence due. 
There Socrates and_Plato both I mark’d 
Nearest to him in rank, Democritus, 
Who sets the world at chance,® Diogenes, 
With Heraclitus, and Empedocles, 
And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage, 
Zeno, and Dioscorides well read 
In nature’s secret lore. Orpheus I mark’d 
And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca, 
Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates, 
Galenus, Avicen, and him who made 
The commentary vast, Averroes.?® 
68“ Electra.””’ The daughter of Atla ® "«: Democritus, 
and mother of Dardanus the founder o Who sets the world at chance.” 


i) 2A a Democritus, who maintained the world 
6 “ Julia. The daughter of Julius to have been formed by the fortuitous 


Cesar, and wife of Pompey. concourse of atoms. 
7“ The Soldan fierce.’ Saladin, or 10 er Him who made 
vA Salaheddin, the rival of Richa? Cceur That commentary vast, Averroes.”’ 
de Lion. Averroes, called by the Arabians 


8“ The master of the sapient throng.” Ibn Roschd, translated and commented 
R pHighel di color che sanno.” _Argis-, on the works of Aristotle. 
otle. 


Serena? 


HELL 17 


Of all to speak at full were vain attempt; 
For my wide theme so urges, that oft-times 
My words fall short of what bechanced. In two 
The six associates part. Another way 
My sage guide leads me, from that air serene, 
Into a climate ever vex’d with storms: 


And to a part I come, where no light shines. : 


CANTO V 


ArRGUMENT.—Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the en- 
trance beholds Minos the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admon- 
ished to beware how he enters those regions. Here he witnesses 
the punishment of carnal sinners, who are tossed about ceaselessly 


in the dark air by the most furious winds. Among these, he meets 
with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose sad tale he falls 


fainting to the ground. 


ROM the first circle I descended thus 

Down to the second, which, a lesser space 

Embracing, so much more of grief contains, 
Provoking bitter moans. There Minos stands, 
Grinning with ghastly feature: he, of all 
Who enter, strict examining the crimes, 
Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath, 
According as he foldeth him around: 
For when before him comes the ill-fated soul, 
It, all confesses; and that judge severe 
Of sins, considering what place in Hell 
Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft 
Himself encircles, as degrees beneath 
He dooms it to descend. Before him stand 
Always a numerous throng; and in his turn 
Each one to judgment passing, speaks, and hears 
His fate, thence downward to his dwelling hurl’d. 
“O thou! who to this residence of woe 
Approachest! ”’ when he saw me coming, cried 
Minos, relinquishing his dread employ, 
“Look how thou enter here; beware in whom 
Thou place thy trust; let not the entrance broad 


18 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Deceive thee to thy harm.” To him my guide: 
“Wherefore exclaimest? Hinder not his way 
By destiny appointed; so ’tis will’d, 
Where will and power are one. Ask thou no more.” 
Now ’gin the rueful wailings to be heard. 
Now am I come where many a plaining voice 
Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came 
be FWhere light was silent all. Bellowing there groan’d 
A Noise, as of a sea in tempest torn 
By warring winds. The stormy blast of Hell 
With restless fury drives the spirits on, 
ght Whirl’d round and dash’d amain with sore annoy. 
When they arrive before the ruinous sweep, 
There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans, 
And blasphemies ’gainst the good Power in Heaven. 
I understood, that to this torment sad 
The carnal sinners are condemn’d, in whom 
Reason by_lust is sway’d. As, in large troops 
And multitudinous, when winter reigns, 
The starlings on their wings are borne abroad; 
So bears the tyrannous gust those evil souls. 
On this side and on that, above, below, 
-— It drives them: hope of rest to solace them 
Is none, nor e’en of milder pang. As cranes, 
Chanting their dolorous notes, traverse the sky, 
Stretch’d out in long array; so I beheld 
Spirits, who came loud wailing, htrried on 
By their dire doom. Then I: “ Instructor! who 
Are these, by the black air so scourged?”’ “ The first 
*Mong those, of whom thou question’st,” he replied, 
“O’er many tongues was empress. She in vice 
Of luxury was so shameless, that she made 
Liking be lawful by promulged decree, 
To clear the blame she had herself incurr’d. 
This is Semiramis, of whom ’tis writ, 
That she succeeded Ninus her espoused ; 
And held the land, which now the Soldan rules, 
The next in amorous fury slew herself, 
And to Sichzus’ ashes broke her faith: 
Then follows Cleopatra, lustful queen.” 


HELL 


There mark’d I Helen, for whose sake so long 
The time was fraught with evil; there the great 
Achilles, who with love fought to the end. 
Paris I saw, and Tristan; and beside, 
A thousand more he show’d me, and by name 
Pointed them out, whom love bereaved of life. 

When I had heard my sage instructor name 
Those dames and knights of antique days, o’erpower’d 


By pity, well-nigh in amaze my mind 

MWaslosty and Thegar—“BaraT willingly 
I would address those two together coming, 
Which seem so light before the wind.” He thus: 
“ Note thou, when nearer they to us approach. 
Then by that love which carries them along, 
Entreat; and they will come.” Soon as the wind 
Sway’d them toward us, I thus framed my speech: 
“O wearied spirits! come, and hold discourse 
With us, if by none else restrain’d.”” As doves 
By fond desire invited, on wide wings 
And firm, to their sweet nest returning home, 
Cleave the air, wafted by their will along ; 
Thus issued, from that troop where[Didolranks, 
They, through the ill air speeding: with such force 
My cry prevail’d, by strong affection urged. 

“O gracious creature and benign! who go’st 
Visiting, through this element obscure, 
Us, who the world with bloody stain imbrued ; 
If, for a friend, the King of all, we own’d, 
Our prayer to him should for thy peace arise, 
Since thou hast pity on our evil plight. 
Of whatsoe’er to hear or to discourse 
It pleases thee, that will we hear, of that 
Freely with thee discourse, while e’er the wind, 
As now, is mute. The land,! that gave me birth, 
Is situate on the coast, where Po descends 
To rest in ocean with his sequent streams. | 

“Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt, 
Entangled him by that fair form, from me 
Ta’en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still: 


1“ The land.” Ravenna. 
patience | 


20 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Love, that denial takes from none beloved, 

Caught me with pleasing him so passing well, 

That, as thou seest, he yet deserts me not. 

Love brought us to one death: Caina? waits 

The soul, who spilt our life.’”’ Such were their words; 
At hearing which, downward I bent my looks, 

And held them there so long, that the bard cried: 


“ What art thou pondering?” 


I in answer thus: 


“ Alas! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire 
Must they at length to that ill pass have reach’d!” 
Then turning, I to them my speech address’d, 

And thus began: “ Erancesca!* your sad fate 

Even to tears my grief and pity moves. 

But tell me; in the time of your sweet sighs, 

By what, and how Love granted, that ye knew 

Your yet uncertain wishes?” She replied: 
—— “No greater grief than to remember days 

Of joy, when misery is at hand. That kens 

Thy learn’d instructor. Yet so eagerly 

If thou art bent to know the primal root, 

From whence our love gat being, I will do 

As one, who weeps and tells his tale. One day, 

For our delight we read of Lancelot,* 

How him love thrall’d. Alone we were, and no 

Suspicion near us. Ofttimes by that reading 

Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue 

Fled from our alter’d cheek. But at one point 

Alone we fell. When of that smile we read, 

The wished smile so rapturously kiss’d 

By one so deep in love, then he, who ne’er 

From me shall separate, at once my lips 

All trembling kiss’d. The book and writer both 

Were love’s purveyors. In its leaves that day 


2“ Caina.”” The place to which mur- 
derers are doomed. 

8“ Francesca.” Francesca, the daugh- 
ter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ra- 
venna, was given by her father in mar- 
riage to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta, 
Lord of Rimini, a man of extraordinary 
courage, but deformed in his person. 
His brother Paolo, who unhappily pos- 
sessed those graces which the husband 
of Francesca wanted, engaged her af- 


fections; and-being taken in adultery, 
they were both put to death by the 


_ enraged Lanciotto. 


4“ Lancelot.” One of the Knights 
of the Round Table, and the lover of 
Ginevra, or Guinever, celebrated in ro- 
mance. The incident alluded to seems 
to have made a strong impression on 
the imagination of Dante, who intro- 
duces it again, in the Paradise, Canto 
XVi. 


HELL aI 


We read no more.” While thus one spirit spake, 
The other wail’d so sorely, that heart-struck 

I, through compassion fainting, seem’ 

From death, and like a corse fell to the ground. 


CANTO VI 


ARGUMENT.—On his recovery, the Poet finds himself in the third circle, 
where the gluttonous are punished. Their torment is, to lie in the 
mire, under a continual and heavy storm of hail, snow, and dis- 
colored water; Cerberus meanwhile barking over them with his 
threefold throat, and rending them piecemeal. One of these, who 
on earth was named Ciacco, foretells the divisions with which Flor- 
ence is about to be distracted. Dante proposes a question to his 
guide, who solves it; and they proceed toward the fourth circle. 


Y sense reviving, that erewhile had droop’d 
With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief 
O’ercame me wholly, straight around I see 
New torments, new tormented souls, which way © 
Soe’er I move, or turn, or bend my sight. 
In the third circle I arrive, of showers 
Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged 
For ever, both in kind and in degree. 
Large hail; discolor’d water, sleety flaw 
Through the dun midnight air stream’d down amain: 
Stank all the land whereon that tempest fell. 
Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange, 
Through his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog 
Over the multitude immersed beneath. 
His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard, 
His belly large, and claw’d the hands, with which 
-He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs 
Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs, 
Under the rainy deluge, with one side 
The other screening, oft they roll them round, 
A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm * 
Descried us, savage Cerberus, he oped 


_ &* That great worm.” In Canto xxxiv. Lucifer is called 
- “The abhorred worm, that boreth through the world. ” 


ae THE DIVINE COMEDY 


His jaws, and the fangs show’d us; not a limb 

Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms 

Expanding on the ground, thence fill’d with earth 

Raised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw. 

E’en as a dog, that yelling bays for food 

His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall 

His fury, bent alone with eager haste 

To swallow it; so dropp’d the loathsome cheeks 

Of demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns 

The spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain. 
We, o’er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt 

Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet 

Upon their emptiness, that substance seem’d. 
They all along the earth extended lay, 

Save one, that sudden raised himself to sit, 

Soon as that way he saw us pass. “O thou!” 

He cried, “ who through the infernal shades art led, 

Own, if again thou know’st me. Thou wast framed 

Or ere my frame was broken.” I replied: 

“The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes 

Thy form from my remembrance, that it seems — 

As if I saw thee never. But inform 

Me who thou art, that in a place so sad 

Art set, and in such torment, that although 

Other be greater, none disgusteth more.” 

He thus in answer-to my words rejoin’d: 

| Thy city, heap’d with envy to the brim, 

Aye, that the measure overflows its bounds, 

Held me in brighter days. *Ye citizens | 

Were wont to name me eee For the sin 

Of gluttony, damned vice, berfeath this rain, 

E’en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn: 

Nor I sole spirit in this woe: all these 

Have by like crime incurr’d like punishment.” 
No more he said, and I my speech resumed: 

“Ciacco! thy dire affliction grieves me much, 

Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know’st, 

What shall at length befall the citizens 


9** Ciacco.” So called from his in- signifying a pig. The real name of this 
ordinate appetite; ‘‘ ciacco,” in Italian, glutton has not been transmitted to us. 


HELL 


Of the divided city ;* whether any 

Just one inhabit there: and tell the cause, 

Whence jarring Discord hath assail’d it thus.” 
He then: “ After long striving they will come 

To blood; and the wild party from the woods * 

Will chase the other ® with much injury forth. 

Then it behooves that this must fall,® within 

Three solar circles;* and the other rise 

By borrow’d force of one, who under shore 


Now rests.® 


It shall a long space hold aloof 


Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight 
The other opprest, indignant at the load, 


And grieving sore. 


The just are two in number.® 


But they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride, 
Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all 


On fire.” 
And I continued thus: 


Here ceased the lamentable sound; 
“ Still would I learn 


More from thee, further parley still entreat. 

Of Farinata and Tegghiaio *° say, 

They who so well deserved; of Giacopo,” 

Arrigo, Mosca,’* and the rest, who bent _ - 
Their minds on working good. Oh! tell me where 
They bide, and to their knowledge let me come. 
For I am prest with keen desire to hear 

Ii heaven’s sweet cup, or poisonous drug of Hell, 


Be to their lip assign’d.” 


He answer’d straight: 
“These are yet blacker spirits. 


Various crimes 


Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss. 
If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them. 
But to the pleasant world, when thou return’st, 


8‘*The divided city.” The city of 
Florence, divided into the Bianchi and 
Neri factions. : 

4“ The wild party from the woods.” 
So called, because it was headed by 
Veri de’ Cerchi, whose family had 
lately come into the city from Acona, 
and the woody country of the Val di 
Nievole. 

5‘* The other.”” The opposite party 
of the Neri, at the head of which was 
Corso Donati. 

8“ This must fall.”” The Bianchi. 

7** Three solar circles.”” Three years. 

8“ ____§__ Of one, who under shore 

Now rests.” 
Charles of Valois, by whose means the 
Neri were replaced. 


® The just are two in number.” Who 
these two were, the commentators are 
not agreed. Some understand them to 
be Dante himself and his friend Guido 
Cavalcanti. : 

10 ** Of Farinata and Tegghiaio.” See 
Canto x. and notes, and Canto xvi. and 
notes. 

11 “* Giacopo.”” Giacopo Rusticucci. 
See Canto xvi. and notes. 

12“* Arrigo, Mosca.” Of Arrigo, who 
is said by the commentators to have 
been of the noble family of the Fifanti, 
no mention afterward occurs. Mosca 
degli Uberti, or de’ Lamberti, is intro- 
duced in Canto xxviii. 


- 


24 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there. 
No more I tell thee, answer thee no more.” 

This said, his fixed eyes he turn’d askance, 
A little eyed me, then bent down his head, 
And ’midst his blind companions with it fell. 

When thus my guide: “No more his bed he leaves, 
Ere the: last angel-trumpet blow. The Power 
Adverse to these shall then in glory come, 

Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair, 

Resume his fleshly vesture and his form, 

And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend 

The vault.” So pass’d we through that mixture foul 
Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps; meanwhile 
Touching, though slightly, on the life to come. 

For thus I question’d: ‘ Shall these tortures, Sir! 
When the great sentence passes, be increased, 

Or mitigated, or as now severe?” 

He then: “ Consult thy knowledge; that decides, 
That, as each thing to more perfection grows, 

It feels more sensibly both good and pain. 
Though ne’er to true perfection may arrive 
This race accurst, yet nearer then, than now, 
They shall approach it.” Compassing that path, 
Circuitous we journey’d; and discourse, 
Much more than [ relate, between us pass’d: 
Till at the point, whence the steps led below, 
Arrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found. 


HELL 25 


CANTO VII 


ARGUMENT.—In the present Canto, Dante describes his descentainto the 


fourth.circle, at the beginning of which he sees Plutus stationed. 
Here one like doom awaits the prodigal and the avaricious; which 
is, to meet in direful conflict, rolling great weights against each 
other with mutual upbraidings. From hence Virgil takes occasion 
to show how vain the goods that are committed into the charge of 
Fortune; and this moves our author to inquire what being that 
Fortune is, of whom he speaks: which question being resolved, they 
go down into the fifth circle, where they find the wrathful and 
gloomy tormented in the Stygian lake. Having made a compass 
round great part of this lake, they come at last to the base of a lofty 


tower. 


“s H me! O Satan! Satan!” ? loud exclaim’d 

A Plutus, in accent hoarse of wild alarm: 
And the kind sage, whom no event surprised, 

To comfort me thus spake: “ Let not thy fear 
Harm thee, for power in him, be sure, is none 
To hinder down this rock thy safe descent.” 
Then to that swoln lip turning, “ Peace!” he cried, 
“Curst wolf! thy fury inward on thyself 


Prey, and consume thee! Through the dark profound, 


Not without cause, he passes. So ’tis will’d 

On high, there where the great Archangel pour’d 

Heaven’s vengeance on the first adulterer proud.” 
As sails, full spread and bellying with the wind, 

Drop suddenly collapsed, if the mast split; 

So to.the ground down dropp’d the cruel fiend. 

_ Thus we, descending to the fourth steep ledge, 

Gain’d on the dismal shore, that all the woe 

Hems in of all the universe. Ah me! 

Almighty Justice! in what store thou heap’st 

New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld. 

Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this? 
E’en as a billow, on Charybdis rising, 

Against encounter’d billow dashing breaks; 

Such is the dance this wretched race must lead, 

Whom more than elsewhere numerous here I found. 


1‘* Ah me! O Satan! Satan! ” “‘ Pape Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe; ”’ words with- 


out meaning. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


From one side and the other, with loud ‘voice, 
Both roll’d on weights, by main force of their breasts, 
Then smote together, and each one forthwith 
Roll’d them back voluble, turning again; 

Exclaiming these, “ Why holdest thou so fast? ” 
Those answering, “ And why castest thou away?” 
So, still repeating their despiteful song, » 
They to the opposite point, on either hand, | 
Traversed the horrid circle; then arrived, a 
Both turn’d them round, and through the middle space 
Conflicting met again. At sight whereof 
I, stung with grief, thus spake: “O say, my guide! 
What race is this. Were these, whose heads are shorn, 
On our left hand, all separate to the church? ” 

He straight replied: “In their first life, these all - 
In mind were so distorted, that they made, 
According to due measure, of their wealth 
No use. This clearly from their words collect, 
Which they howl forth, at each extremity 
Arriving of the circle, where their crime 
Contrary in kind disparts them. To the church 
Were separate those, that with no hairy cowls 
Are crown’d, both popes and cardinals, o’er whom 
Avarice dominion absolute maintains.” 

I then: “’Mid such as these some needs must be, 
Whom I shall recognize, that with the blot 
Of these foul sins were stain’d.” He answering thus: 
“ Vain thought conceivest thou. That ignoble life, 
Which made them vile before, now makes them dark, 
And to all knowledge indiscernible. 
For ever they shall meet in this rude shock: 
‘ These from the tomb with clenched grasp shall rise, 
Those with close-shaven locks. That ill they gave, 
And ill they kept, hath of the beauteous world 
Deprived, and set them at this strife, which needs 
No labor’d phrase of mine to set it off. 
Now mayst thou see, my son! how brief, how vain, 
The goods committed into Fortune’s hands, 
For which the human race keep such a coil! 
Not all the gold that is beneath the moon, 


HELL 27 


Or ever hath been, of these toil-worn souls 

Might purchase rest for one.” I thus rejoin’d: 

“ My guide! of these this also would I learn; 

This Fortune, that thou speak’st of, what it is, 

Whose talons grasp the blessings of the world.” 
He thus: “O beings blind! what ignorance 

Besets you! Now my judgment hear and mark. 

He, whose transcendent wisdom passes all, 

The heavens creating, gave them ruling powers 

To guide them; so that each part shines to each, 

Their light in equal distribution pour’d. 

By similar appointment he ordain’d, 

Over the world’s bright images to rule, 

Superintendence of a guiding hand 

And general minister, which, at due time, 

May change the empty vantages of life 

From race to race, from one to other’s blood, 

Beyond prevention of man’s wisest care: 

Wherefore one nation rises into sway, 

Another languishes, e’en as her will 

Decrees, from us conceal’d, as in the grass 

The serpent train. Against her nought avails 

Your utmost wisdom. She with foresight plans, 

Judges, and carries on her reign, as theirs 

The other powers divine. Her changes know 

None intermission: by necessity 

She is made swift, so frequent come who claim 

Succession in her favors. This is she, 

So execrated e’en by those whose debt 

To her is rather praise: they wrongfully 

With blame requite her, and with evil word; 

But she is blessed, and for that recks not: 

Amidst the other primal beings glad 

Rolls on her sphere, and in her bliss exults. 

Now on our way pass we, to heavier woe 

Descending: for each star is falling now, 

That mounted at our entrance, and forbids 

Too long our tarrying.” We the circle cross’d 

To the next steep, arriving at a well, 

That boiling pours itself down to a foss- 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Sluiced from its source. Far murkier was the wave 
Than sablest grain: and we in company 
Of the inky waters, journeying by their side, 
Enter’d, though by a different track, beneath. 
Into a lake, the Stygian named, expands 
The dismal stream, when it hath reach’d the foot 
Of the gray wither’d cliffs. Intent I stood 
To gaze, and in the marish sunk descried 
A miry tribe, all naked, and with looks 
Betokening rage. They with their hands alone 
Struck not, but with the head, the breast, the feet, 
Cutting each other piecemeal with their fangs. 

The good instructor spake: ‘“ Now seest thou, son! 
The souls of those, whom anger overcame. 
This too for certain know, that underneath 
The water dwells a multitude, whose sighs 
Into these bubbles make the surface heave, 
As thine eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turn. 
Fix’d in the slime, they say: “Sad once were we, 
‘In the sweet air made gladsome by the sun, 
‘Carrying a foul and lazy mist within: 
‘ Now in these murky settlings are we sad.’ 
Such dolorous strain they gurgle in their throats, 
But word distinct can utter none.” Our route 
Thus compass’d we, a segment widely stretch’d 
Between the dry embankment, and the core 
Of the loath’d pool, turning meanwhile our eyes 
Downward on those who gulp’d its muddy lees; 
Nor stopp’d, till to a tower’s low base we came. 


HELL 29 


CANTO VIII 


ArcuMENT.—A signal having been made from the tower, Phlegyas, the 
ferryman of the lake, speedily crosses it, and conveys Virgil and 
Dante to the other side. On their passage, they meet with Filippo 
Argenti, whose fury and torment are described. They then arrive 


at the city of Dis, the entrance whereto is denied, and the portals 
closed against them by many Demons. 


Y theme pursuing, I relate, that ere 
We reach’d the lofty turret’s base, our eyes 
Its height ascended, where we mark’d uphung 

Two cressets, and another saw from far 
Return the signal, so remote, that scarce 
The eye could catch its beam. I, turning round 
To the deep source of knowledge, thus inquired: 
“ Say what this means; and what, that other light 
In answer set: what agency doth this? ” 

“There on the filthy waters,” he replied, 
* E’en now what next awaits us mayst thou see, 
If the marsh-gendered fog conceal it not.” 

Never was arrow from the cord dismiss’d, 
That ran its way so nimbly through the air, 
As a small bark, that through the waves I spied 
Toward us coming, under the sole sway 
Of one that ferried it, who cried aloud: 
“ Art thou arrived, fell spirit? ’—‘ Phlegyas, Phlegyas,? 
This time thou criest in vain,” my lord replied; 
“ No longer shalt thou have us, but while o’er 
The slimy pool we pass.” As one who hears 
Of some great wrong he hath sustain’d, whereat 
Inly he pines: so Phlegyas inly pined 
In his fierce ire. My guide, descending, stepp’d 
Into the skiff, and bade me enter next, 
Close at his side; nor, till my entrance, seem’d 
The vessel freighted. Soon as both embark’d, 
Cutting the waves, goes on the ancient prow, 
More deeply than with others it is wont. 
1“ Phlegyas.” Phlegyas, who was so fire to the temple of that deity, by 


incensed against Apollo, for having vio- whose vengeance he was cast into Tar- 
lated his daughter Coronis, that he set tarus. See Virg. ‘* 7En.” 1. vi. 618, 


? 


Vy, 


go THE DIVINE COMEDY 


While we our course o’er the dead channel held, 

One drench’d in mire before me came, and said: 

answer d: “ Though Icome, I tarry not: 
But who art thou, that art become so foul?” 

“ One, as thou-seest, who mourn:” he straight replied. 
owhich Ithus: “ In mourning and in woe, 
iit! tarry thou. I know thee well, 

E’en thus in filth disguised.”’ Then stretch’d he forth 
Hands to the bark; whereof my teacher sage 
Aware, thrusting him back: “ Away! down there 
To the-ettrer-degs!” then, with his arms my neck 
Encircling, kiss’d my cheek, and spake: “O soul, 
Justly disdainful! blest was she in whom 
Thou wast conceived. He in the world was one 
For arrogance noted: to his memory 
No virtue lends its lustre; even so 
Here is his shadow furious. ‘There above, 
How many now hold themselves mighty kings, 
Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire, 
Leaving behird them horrible dispraise.” 

I then: “ Master! him fain would I behold 
Whelm’d in these dregs, before we quit the lake.” 

He thus: “ Or ever to thy view the shore 
Be offer’d, satisfied shall be that wish, 

Which well deserves completion.” Scarce his words 
Were ended, when I saw the miry tribes 

Set on him with such violence, that yet 

For that render I thanks to God, and praise. 

“To Filippo Argenti! ” * cried they all: 

And on himself the moody Florentine 

Turn’d his avenging fangs. Him here we left, 

Nor speak I of him more. But on mine ear 

Sudden a sound of lamentation smote, 

Whereat mine eye unbarr’d I sent abroad. 

And thus the good instructor: “ Now, my son 
Draws the city, that of Dis is named, 
With its grave denizens, a mighty throng.” 

2* Filippo Argenti.”” Boccaccio tells vigor of his bodily fram@, and thie 


us, “he was a man remarkable for the | extreme waywardness and irascibility of 
large proportions and extraordinary his temper.’’—“‘ Decam.” G, ix. N. 8. 


HELL 3t 


I thus: “ The minarets already, Sir! 
There, certes, in the valley I descry, 
Gleaming vermilion, as if they from fire 
Had issued.” He replied: ‘“ Eternal fire, 
That inward burns, shows them with ruddy flame 
Illumed; as in this nether Hell thou seest.” 
We came within the fosses deep, that moat 
This region comfortless. The walls appear’d 
As they were framed of iron. We had made 
Wide circuit, ere a place we reach’d, where loud 
The mariner cried vehement: “Go forth: . 
The entrance is here.’’ Upon the gates I spied 
More than a thousand, who of old from heaven 
Were shower’d. With ireful gestures, “ Who is this,” 
They cried, “that, without death first felt, goes through 
The regions of the dead?”’ My sapient guide 
Matte-sign that he for secret parley wish’d; 
Whereat their angry scorn abating, thus 
They spake: ‘“‘ Come thou alone; and let him go, 
epee oa dly eed tiie veal. 
Alone return he by his witless way ; 
If well he knew it, let him prove. For thee, 
Here shalt thou tarry, who through clime so dark 
Hast been his escort.”” Now bethink thee, reader! 
What cheer was mine at sound of those curst words. 
I did believe I never should return. 
-_“O my loved guide! who more than seven times® 
Security hast render’d me, and drawn 
From peril deep, whereto I stood exposed, 
Desert me not,” I cried, “in this extreme. 
And, if our onward going be denied, 
Together trace we back our steps with speed.” 
My liege, who thither had conducted me, 
Replied: “ Fear not: for of our passage none 
Hath power to disappoint us, by such high 
Authority permitted. But do thou 
8“ Seven times.”” The commentators, berus, Plutus, Phlegyas, and iat 
gays Venturi, perplex themselves with Argenti, as so many others, we shall 
the inquiry what seven perils these have the number; and if this be not 
were from which Dante had been de- satisfactory, we may suppose a determi- 
Ihvered by Virgil. Reckoning the nate to have been put for an indeter- 


beasts in the first, Canto_as one_of minate number. 
them, and adding Charon, Minos, Cer- 


32 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Expect me here; meanwhile, thy wearied spirit 


Comfort, and feed with kindly hope, assured 


I 


id:? 


This said, departs the sire benevolent, 


And quits me. 


Hesitating I remain 


At war, ’twixt will and will not, in my thoughts. 
I could not hear what terms he offer’d them, 
But they conferr’d not long, for all at once 
Pellmell rush’d back within. Closed-were the gates, 
By those our adversaries, on the breast a 
Of my liege lord: excluded, he return’d 
To me with tardy steps. Upon the ground 
His eyes were bent, and from his brow erased 
All confidence, while thus in sighs he spake: 
- “ Who hath denied me these abodes of woe?” 
Then thus tome: “ That I am anger’d, think 
No ground of terror: in this trial I 
Shall vanquish, use what arts they may within 


For hindrance. 


This their insolence, not new,* 


Erewhile at gate less secret they display’d, 
Which still is without bolt; upon its arch 

Thou saw’st the deadly scroll: and even now, 
On this side of its entrance, down the steep, 
Passing the circles, unescorted, comes 

One whose strong might can open us this land.” 


« “This their insolence, not new.” 
Virgil assures our poet that these evil 
spirits had formerly shown the same in- 
solence when our Saviour descended 
into hell. They attempted to prevent 
him from entering at the gate, over 


which Dante had read the fatal inscrip- 
tion. ‘‘ That gate which,” says the Ro- 
man poet, “‘an angel had just passed, 
by whose aid we shall overcome this 
opposition, and gain admittance into 
the city.” 


HELL 33 


CANTO IX 


ARGUMENT.—After some hinderances, and having seen the hellish furies 
and other monsters, the Poet, by the help of an angel, enters the 
city of Dis, wherein he discovers that the heretics are punished in 
tombs burning with intense fire; and he, together with Virgil, passes 
onward between the sepulchres and the walls of the city. 


HE hue,? which coward dread on my pale cheeks 
Imprinted when I saw my guide turn back, 
Chased that from his which newly they had worn, 
And inwardly restrain’d it. He,as one 
Who listens, stood attentive: for his eye 
Not far could lead him through the sable air, 
And the thick-gathering cloud. “It yet behoves 
We win this fight;” thus he began: “ if not, 
Such aid to us is offer’'d—Oh! how long 
Me seems it, ere the promised help arrive.” 
T noted, how the sequel of his words 
Cloked their beginning; for the last he spake 
Agreed not with the first. But not the less 
My fear was at his saying; sith I drew 
To import worse, perchance, than that he held, 
His mutilated speech. “ Doth ever any 
Into this rueful concave’s extreme depth 
Descend, out of the first degree, whose pain 
Is deprivation merely of sweet hope?” 
Thus I inquiring. “ Rarely,” he replied, 
“Tt ‘chances, that among us any makes 
This journey, which I wend. Erewhile, ’tis true, 
Once came I here beneath, conjured by fell 
Erictho,? sorceress, who compell’d the shades 
Back to their bodies. No long space my flesh 
Was naked of me, when within these walls 
She made me enter, to draw forth a spirit 
From out of Judas’ circle. Lowest place 
Is that of all, obscurest, and removed 
1“ The hue.” Virgil, perceiving that sorceress, according to Lucan, ** Phar- 
Dante was pale with fear, restrained sal.” 1. vi., was employed by Sextus, son 
those outward tokens of displeasure of Pompey the Great, to conjure up a 
which his own countenance fad be- spirit, who should inform him of the 
trayed. issue of the civil wars between his 
8“ Erictho.” Erictho, a Thessalian father and Cesar. 


34 


8 “ The lore.”” The Poet probably in- perance, reason, which is figured under 
the person of Virgil, with the ordinary 
the allegorical and mystic sense of the grace of God, may be a sufficient safe- 
present Canto, and not, as Venturi sup- 
poses, to that of the whole work. Lan- ; 
dino supposes this hidden meaning to hereafter see punished, a special grace, 

represented by the angel, is requisite 


tends to call the reader’s attention to 


be that in the case of those vices which 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Furthest from heaven’s ail-circling orb. The road 
Full well I know: thou therefore rest secure. 
That lake, the noisome stench exhaling, round 
The city of grief encompasses, which now 
We may not enter without rage.’’ Yet more 
He added: but I hold it not in mind, 
For that mine eye toward the lofty tower 
Had drawn me wholly, to its burning top; 
Where, in an instant, I beheld uprisen 
At once three hellish furies stain’d with blood. 
In limb and motion feminine they seem’d ; 
Around them greenest hydras twisting roll’d 
Their volumes; adders and cerastes crept 
Instead of hair, and their fierce temples bound. 
He, knowing well the miserable hags 
Who tend the queen of endless woe, thus spake: 
“ Mark thou each dire Erynnis. To the left, 
This is Megzera; on the right hand, she 
Who wails, Alecto; and Tisiphone 
I’ th’ midst.” This said, in silence he remain’d. 
Their breast they each one clawing tore; themselves 
Smote with their palms, and such thrill clamor raised, 
That to the bard I clung, suspicion-bound. 
“Hasten Medusa: so to adamant . 
Him shall we change;” all looking down exclaim’d: 
“F’en when by Theseus’ might assail’d, we took 
No ill revenge.” “ Turn thyself round and keep 
Thy countenance hid; for if the Gorgon dire 
Be shown, and thou shouldst view it, thy return 
Upwards would be for ever lost.” This said, 
Himself, my gentle master, turn’d me round; 
Nor trusted he my hands, but with his own 
He also hid me. Ye of intellect 
Sound and entire, mark well the lore * conceal’d 
Under close texture of the mystic strain. 


proceed from incontinence and intem- for our defence. 


uard; but that in the instance of more 
einous crimes, such as those we shall 


HELL 35 


And now there came o’er the perturbed waves 
Loud-crashing, terrible, a sound that made 
Either shore tremble, as if of a wind 
Impetuous, from conflicting vapors sprung, 
That ’gainst some forest driving all his might, 
Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls 
Afar; then, onward passing, proudly sweeps 
His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly. 
Mine eyes he loosed, and spake: ‘‘ And now direct 
Thy visual nerve along that ancient foam, 


There, thickest where the smoke ascends.” 


As frogs 


Before their foe the serpent, through the wave 
Ply swiftly all, till at the ground each one 

Lies on a heap; more than a thousand spirits 
Destroy’d, so saw I fleeing before one 

Who pass’d with unwet feet the Stygian sound. 
He, from his face removing the gross air, 

Oft his left hand forth stretch’d, and seem’d alone 
By that annoyance wearied. I perceived 

That he was sent from heaven; and to my guide 
Turn’d me, who signal made, that I should stand 
Quiet, and bend to him. Ah me! how full 

Of noble anger seem’d he. To the gate 

He came, and with his wand touch’d it, whereat 
Open without impediment it flew. 

“ Outcasts of heaven! O abject race, and scorn’d!” 
Began he, on the horrid grunsel standing, 
“Whence doth this wild excess of insolence 
Lodge in you? wherefore kick you ’gainst that will 
Ne’er frustrate of its end, and which so oft 
Hath laid on you enforcement of your pangs? 
What profits, at the fates to butt the horn? 

Your Cerberus,* if ye remember, hence 
Bears still, peel’d of their hair, his throat and maw.” 
This said, he turn’d back o’er the filthy way, 


eeerour Cerberus.” Cerberus. is 
feigned to have been dragged by Her- 
cules, bound with a threefold chain, of 
which, says the angel, he still bears the 
marks. ombardi blames the other in- 
terpreters for having supposed that the 
angel attributes this exploit to Her- 


cules, a fabulous hero, rather than to 
our Saviour. It would seem as if the 
good father had forgotten that Cerberus 
is himself no less a creature of the 
imagination than the hero who en- 
countered him. 


36 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And syllable to us spake none; but wore 
The semblance of a man by other care 
Beset, and keenly prest, than thought of him 
Who in his presence stands. Then we our steps 
Toward that territory moved, secure 
After the hallow’d words. We, unopposed, 
There enter’d; and, my mind eager to learn 
What state a fortress like to that might hold, 
I, soon as enter’d, throw mine eye around, 
And see, on every part, wide-stretching space, 
Replete with bitter pain and torment ill. 
As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Arles,§ 
Or as at Pola,® near Quarnaro’s gulf, 
That closes Italy and laves her bounds, 
The place is all thick spread with sepulchres ; 
So was it here, save what in horror here 
Excell’d: for ’midst the graves were scattered flames, 
Wherewith intensely all throughout they burn’d, 
That iron for no craft there hotter needs. 
Their lids all hung suspended; and beneath, 
From them forth issued lamentable moans, 
Such as the sad and tortured well might raise. 
Ithus: ‘“‘ Master! say who are these, interr’d 
Within these vaults, of whom distinct we hear 
The dolorous sighs.” He answer thus return’d: 
“ The arch-heretics are here, accompanied 
By every sect their followers; and much more, 
Than thou believest, the tombs are freighted: like 
With like is buried; and the monuments 
Are different in degrees of heat.” This said, 
He to the right hand turning, on we pass’d 
Betwixt the afflicted and the ramparts high. 
6“ The plains of Arles.’”’ In Pro- cap. 28. .and 30. and by Fazio degli 
vence. These sepulchres are mentioned Uberti, Dittamondo, L. iv. cap. xxi. 
in the Life of Charlemagne, which goes 6“ At Pola.” A city of Istria, sit- 


under the name of Archbishop Turpin, uated near the gulf of Quarnaro, in the 
Adriatic Sea. 


HELL 37 


CANTO X 


ARGUMENT.—Dant 


up till afte 


from Florence; and shows him 


tha 


his. guide, holds 


Pe 


t the condemned have knowledge 


of future things, but are ignorant of what is at present passing, un- 
less it be revealed by some newcomer from earth. 


OW by a secret pathway we proceed, 
Between the walls, that hem the region round, 
And the tormented souls: my master first, 
I close behind his steps. “ Virtue supreme!” 


I thus began: 


“Who through these ample orbs 


In circuit lead’st me, even as thou will’st; 

Speak thou, and satisfy my wish. May those, 
Who lie within these sepulchres, be seen? 
Already all the lids are raised, and none 

O’er them keeps watch.” He thus in answer spake: 
“They shall be closed all, what-time they here 
From Josaphat ? return’d shall come, and bring 
Their bodies, which above they now have left. 
The cemetery on this part obtain, 

With Epicurus, all his followers, 

Who with the body make the spirit die. 

Here therefore satisfaction shall be soon, 

Both to the question ask’d, and to the wish ? 
Which thou conceal’st in silence.” I replied: 

“T keep not, guide beloved! from thee my heart 
Secreted, but to shun vain length of words; 

A lesson erewhile taught me by thyself.” 

“O Tuscan! thou, who through the city of fire 
Alive art passing, so discreet of speech: 
Here, please thee, stay awhile. Thy utterance 
Declares the place of thy nativity 


1 Josaphat.” It seems to have been 
@ common opinion among the Jews, as 
well as among many Christians, that 
the general judgment will be held in 
the valley of Josaphat, or Jehoshaphat: 
“I will also gather all nations, and will 
bring them down into the valley of 
Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them 
there for my people, and for my heri- 


Classics. Vol. 34—C 


tage Israel, whom they have scattered 
among the nations, and parted my 
land.”’—Joel, iii. 2, 

2“* The wish.” The wish that Dante 
had not expressed was to see_and con- 
verse with the followers of Epicurus; 
among whom, we shall see, were Fari- 
nata degli Uberti and Cavalcante Caval- 
canti. 


38 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To be that noble land, with which perchance 

I too severely dealt.” Sudden that sound 

Forth issued from a vault, whereat, in fear, 

I somewhat closer to my leader’s side 

Approaching, he thus spake: ‘“ What dost thou? Turn: 
Lo! Farinata* there, who hath himself 

Uplifted: from his girdle upwards, all 

Exposed, behold him.” On his face was mine 

Already fix’d: his breast and forehead there 

Erecting, seem’d as in high scorn he held 


E’en Hell. 


Between the sepulchres, to him 


My guide thrust me, with fearless hands and prompt; 
This warning added: “ See thy words be clear.” 

He, soon as there I stood at the tomb’s foot, 
Eyed me a space; then in disdainful mood 
Address’d me: “ Say what ancestors were thine.” 

I, willing to obey him, straight reveal’d 
The whole, nor kept back aught: whence he, his brow 
Somewhat uplifting, cried: “ Fiercely were they 
Adverse to me, my party, and the blood 
From whence I sprang: twice,* therefore, I abroad 


Scatter’d them.” 


“Though driven out, yet they each time 


From all parts,” answer’d I, “return’d; an art | 

Which yours have shown they are not skill’d to learn.” 
Then, peering forth from the unclosed jaw, _ 

Rose from his side a shade,® high as the chin, 

Leaning, methought, upon its knees upraised. 

It look’d around, as eager to explore 

If there were other with me; but perceiving 

That fond imagination quench’d, with tears 

Thus spake: “If thou through this blind prison go’st, 

Led by thy lofty genius and profound, 

Where is my son? * and wherefore not with thee?” 


3“ Fari , Farinata degli Uberti, 
a noble-Picrentine was the leader of 
the Ghibelline faction, when they ob- 
tained a signal victory over the Guelfi 
at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. 
Macchiavelli calls him ‘‘a man of ex- 
alted soul, and great military talents.” 
—‘* Hist. of Flor.’’ b. ii. His grandson, 


Bonifacio, or, as he is commonly called, - 


Fazio degli Uberti, wrote a poem, en- 
titled the ‘“‘ Dittamonodo,” in imitation 
of Dante. 


4“ Twice.” The first time in 1248, 
when they_were driven out by Fred- 
erick the Second. See G. Villani, lib. 
vi. c. xxxiv.; and the second time in 
1260. See note to v. 83. 

5“ A shade.” The spirit of Caval- 
cante Cavalcanti, a noble Florentine, of 
the Guelf party. 

6“ My son.” Guido, the son of Ca- 
valcante Cavalcanti; * he whom I call 
the first of my friends,” says Dante in 
his “Vita Nuova” where the come 


HELL 39 


I straight replied: ‘ Not of myself I come; 

By him, who there expects me, through this clime 
Conducted, whom perchance Guido thy son 

Had in contempt.” * Already had his words 

And mode of punishment read me his name, 
Whence I so fully answer’d. He at once 

Exclaim’d, up starting, “ How! said’st thou, he had? 


No longer lives he? 
é blessed dayli 


Strikes not on his eye 
t?” Then, of some delay 


I made ere my reply, aware, down fell 


ore. 


Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom 
I yet was station’d, changed not countenance stern, 
Nor moved the neck, nor bent his ribbed side. 
* And if,” continuing the first discourse, 
“ They in this art,” he cried, ‘ small skill have shown; 
That doth torment me more e’en than this bed. 
But not yet fifty times ® shall be relumed 
Her aspect, who reigns here queen of this realm,® 
Ere thou shalt know the full weight of that art. 
So to the pleasant world mayst thou return, 
As thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws, 
Against my kin this people is so fell.” 

“ The slaughter *° and great havoc,” I replied, 
“* That color’d Arbia’s flood with crimson stain— 
To these impute, that in our hallow’d dome 


Such orisons ™ ascend.” 


Sighing he shook 


The head, then thus resumed: “In that affray 


mencement of their friendship is re- 
lated. From the character given of him 
by contemporary writers, his temper 
was well formed to assimilate with that 
of our Poet. He was,”’ according to 
ORC Ts SOS e+ tie aii 4 § Con 
hilosophical and elegant mind, if he 
ad not been too delicate and fastid- 
ious.” 
ep We i Guido thy son 
Had in contempt.”’ 
Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to 
philosophy than poetry, was perhaps no 
great admirer of Virgil. 
8“ Not yet fifty times.” ‘‘ Not fifty 
months shall be passed, before thou 
shalt learn, by woful experience, the 
difficulty of returning from banishment 
to thy native city.”’ 
®“* Queen of this realm.”” The moon, 
one of whose titles in heathen mythol- 


ogy was Proserpine, queen of the 
shades below. 

10‘* The slaughter.” ‘‘ By means of 
Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi were 
conquered by the army of King Man- 
fredi, near the river Arbia, with so 
great a slaughter, that those who es- 
caped from that defeat took refuge, not. 
in Florence, which city they considered 
as lost to them, but. in Lucca.’’—Mac- 
chiavelli, ‘* Hist. of Flor.”’ b. ii. and G. 
Villani, lib. vi. c. Ixxx. and Ixxxi. 

11 ** Such orisons.”” This appears to 
allude to certain prayers which were 
offered up in the ahenelies of Florence, 
for deliverance from the hostile at- 
tempts of the Uberti: or, it Be be 
that the public councils being held in 
churches, the speeches delivered in 
them against the Uberti are termed 
“‘ orisons,” or prayers. 


40 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


I stood not singly, nor, without just cause, 
Assuredly, should with ithe rest have -stirr’d; 
But singly there 1 stood,** when, by consent 
Of all, Florence had to the:ground been razed, 
The one who openly forbade the deed.” 
“‘ So may thy lineage find at last repose,” 
I thus adjured him, “as thou solve this knot, 
Which now involves my mind. If right I hear, 
Ye seem to view beforehand that which time 
Leads with him, of the present uninform’d.” 
“We view, as one who hath an evil sight,” 
He answer’d, “ plainly, objects far remote; 
So much of his large splendor yet imparts 
The Almighty Ruler: but when they approach, 


Or actually exist, our intellect 


Then wholly fails; nor of your human state, 
Except what others bring us, know we aught. 
Hence therefore mayst thou understand, that all 
Our knowledge in that instant shall expire, 
When on futurity the portals close.” 

Then conscious of my fault,?? and by remorse 
Smitten, I added thus: “ Now shalt thou say 
To him there fallen, that his offspring still 
Is to the living join’d; and bid him know, 
That if from answer, silent, I abstain’d, 

’Twas that my thought was-occupied, intent 
Upon that error, which thy ‘help hath solved.” 

But now my master summoning me back 
I heard, and with more eager haste besought 
The spirit to inform me, who with him 


Partook his lot. 


He answer thus return’d: 


“ More than a thousand with me here are laid. 


123‘*Singly there I stood.”? Guido 
Novello assembled a council of the 
Ghibellini at Empoli; where it was 
agreed by all, that, in order to main- 
tain the ascendancy of the Ghibelline 
party in Tuscany, it was necessary to 
destroy Florence, which .could serve 
only (the people of that city being 
Guelfi) to enable the party attached to 
tke church to recover its strength. This 
cruel sentence, passed upon so noble a 
city, met with no opposition from any 
of its citizens or friends, except Fa- 


rinata degli Uberti, who openly and 
without reserve forbade the measure; 
affirming, that he had endured so many 
hardships, and encountered ‘so many 
dangers, with no other view than that 
of being able to pass his days in his 
own country. Macchiavelli, “ Hist. of 
Flor.” b. :ii. 

18“ My fault.”” ‘Dante felt remorse 
for not having returned an immediate 
answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, 
from which delay he was led to believe 
thas his son Guido was no longer living. 


HELL 41 


Within is Frederick,1* second of that name, 
And the Lord Cardinal, and of the rest 


I speak not.” 


He, this said, from sight withdrew. 


But I my steps toward the ancient bard 
Reverting, ruminated on the words 


Betokening me such ill. 


Onward he moved, 
And thus, in going, question’d: 
That holds thy senses wrapt? ” 


* Whence the amaze 
I satisfied 


The inquiry, and the sage enjoin’d me straight: 
“Let thy safe memory store what thou hast heard 
To thee importing harm; and note thou this,” 
With his raised finger bidding me take heed, 
“When thou shalt stand before her gracious beam,*® 
Whose bright eye all surveys, she of thy life 

The future tenor will to thee unfold.” 

Forthwith he to the left hand turn’d his feet: 
We left the wall, and toward the middle space 
Went by a path that to a valley strikes, 

Which e’en thus high exhaled its noisome steam. 


14“ Frederick.” The Emperor Fred- 
erick II, who died in 1250. See notes 
to Canto xiii. 

% The Lord Cardinal.” Ottaviano 
Ubaldini, a Florentine, made cardinal 
in 1245, and deceased about 1273. On 
account of his great influence, he was 


generally known by the appellation of 
“the Cardinal.’”? It is repovted of him 
that he declared if there were any such 
thing as a human soul he had lost his 
for, the Ghibellini. 
6 ‘Her gracious beam.”’ Beatrice. 


42 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XI 


ARGUMENT.—Dante arrives at the verge of a rocky-precipice which en< 
coses the sexenth cree ere he sees the sepulchre of Anastasius 
the Heretic; behind thetid of which pausing a little, to make him- 
self capable by degrees of enduring the fetid smell that steamed 
upward from the abyss, he is instructed by Virgil concerning the 
manner in which the three following circles are disposed, and what 
description of sinners is punished in each. He then inquires the 
reason why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and prodigal, 
the wrathful and gloomy, suffer not their punishments within the 
city of Dis. He next asks how the crime of usury is an offence 
against God; and at length the two Poets go toward the place from 
whence a passage leads down to the seventh circle. 


PON the utmost verge of a high bank, 
U By craggy rocks environ’d round, we came, 
Where woes beneath, more cruel yet, were stow'd3 

And here, to shun the horrible excess 
Of fetid exhalation upward cast 
From the profound abyss, behind the lid 
Of a great monument we stood retired, 
Whereon this scroll I mark’d: “TI have in charge 
Pope Anastastius,t whom Photinus drew 
From the right path.” “ Ere our descent, behoves 
We make delay, that somewhat first the sense, 
To the dire breath accustom’d, afterward 
Regard it not.” My master thus; to whom 
Answering I spake: ‘‘ Some compensation find, 
That the time pass not wholly lost.” He then: 
“Lo! how my thoughts e’en to thy wishes tend. 
My son! within these rocks,” he thus began, 
“ Are three close circles in gradation placed, 
As these which now thou leavest. Each one is full 
Of spirits accurst; but that the sight alone 
Hereafter may suffice thee, listen how 
And for what cause in durance they abide. 

“ Of all malicious act abhorr’d in heaven, 
The end is injury; and all such end 


1** Pope Anastasius.”” The commen- some he_ is supposed to have been An- 
tators are not agreed concerning the astasius II; by others, the fourth of that 
erson who is here mentioned as a fol- mame. 


ower of the heretical Photinus. By 


HELL | ' 43 


Either by force or fraud works other’s woe. 

But fraud, because of man’s peculiar evil, 

To God is more displeasing ; and beneath, 

The fraudulent are therefore doom’d to endure 

Severer pang. The violent occupy 

All the first circle; and because, to force, 

Three persons are obnoxious, in three rounds, 

Each within other separate, is it framed. 

To God, his neighbor, and himself, by man 

Force may be offer’d; to himself I say, 

And his possessions, as thou soon shalt hear 

At full. Death, violent death, and painful wounds 

Upon his neighbor he inflicts; and wastes, 

By devastation, pillage, and the flames, 

His substance. Slayers, and each one that smites 

In malice, plunderers, and all robbers, hence 

The torment undergo of the first round, 

In different herds. Man can do violence 

To himself and his own blessings: and for this, 

He, in the second round must aye deplore 

With unavailing penitence his crime, 

Whoe’er deprives himself of life and light, 

In reckless lavishment his talent wastes, 

And sorrows there where he should dwell in joy. 

To God may force be offer’d, in the heart 

Denying and blaspheming his high power, 

And Nature with her kindly law contemning. 

And thence the inmost round marks with its seal 

Sodom, and Cahors, and all such as speak 

Contemptuously of the Godhead in their hearts. 
“Fraud, that in every conscience leaves a sting, 

May be by man employ’d on one, whose trust 

He wins, or on another who withholds 

Strict confidence. Seems as the latter way 

Broke but the bond of love which Nature makes. 

Whence in the second circle have their nest, 

Dissimulation, witchcraft, flatteries, 

Theft, falsehood, simony, all who seduce 

To lust, or set their honesty at pawn, 

With such vile scum as these. The other way 


44 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Forgets both Nature’s general love, and that 
Which thereto added afterward gives birth 
To special faith. Whence in the lesser circle, 
Point of the universe, dread seat of Dis, 
The traitor is eternally consumed.” 

I thus: “Instructor, clearly thy discourse 
Proceeds, distinguishing the hideous chasm 
And its inhabitants with skill exact. 
But tell me this: they of the dull, fat pool, 
Whom the rain beats, or whom the tempest drives, 
Or who with tongues so fierce conflicting meet, 
Wherefore within the city fire-illumed 
Are not these punish’d, if God’s wrath be on them? 
And if it be not, wherefore in such guise 
Are they condemn’d?”’ He answer thus return’d: 
“ Wherefore in dotage wanders thus thy mind, 
.Not so accustom’d? or what other thoughts 
Possess it? Dwell not in thy memory 
The words, wherein thy ethic page? describes 
Three dispositions adverse to Heaven’s will, 
Incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness, 
And how incontinence the least offends 
God, and least guilt incurs? If well thou note 
This judgment, and remember who they are, 
Without these walls to vain repentance doom’d, 
Thou shalt discern why they apart are placed 
From these fell spirits, and less wreakful pours 
Justice divine on them its vengeance down.” 

“O sun! who healest all imperfect sight, 
Thou so content’st me, when thou solvest my doubt, 
That ignorance not less than knowledge charms. 
Yet somewhat turn thee back,” I in these words 
Continued, “ where thou said’st, that usury 
Offends celestial Goodness; and this knot 
Perplex’d unravel.” He thus made reply: 
“Philosophy, to an attentive ear, 
Clearly points out, not in one part alone, 


dniste Thy ethic page.” He refers to that respecting morals there are three 


Aristotle’s “‘ Ethics,” lib. vii. c. 1: “In sorts of things to be avoided, malice, 
the next place, eee on another di- incontinence, and brutishness.”’ 
vision of the subject, le 


t it be defined 


HELL 45 


How imitative Nature takes her course 
From the celestial mind, and from its art: 
And where her laws® the Stagirite unfolds, 
Not many leaves scann’d o’er, observing well 
Thou shalt discover, that your art on her 
Obsequious follows, as the learner treads 

Tn his instructor’s step; so that your art 
Deserves the name of second in descent 
From God. These two, if thou recall to mind 
Creation’s holy book,* from the beginning 
Were the right source of life and excellence 
To human-kind. But in another path 

The usurer walks; and Nature in herself 
And in her follower thus he sets at naught, 


Placing elsewhere his hope.® 


But follow now 


My steps on forward journey bent; for now 
The Pisces play with undulating glance 
Along the horizon, and the Wain® lies all 
O’er the northwest; and onward there a space 
Is our steep passage down the rocky height.” 


8 Her laws.” Aristotle’s ‘ Physics,” 
ib. ii. c. 2: ‘‘ Art imitates mature.” 
,,*. Creation’s holy book.’”’ Genesis, c. 
ii. v. 15: “ And the Lord God-took the 
man, and put him into the Garden of 
Eden, to dress it, and to om sh it.” And 
Genesis, c. iii. v. 19: ‘‘ In the sweat of 
thy face shalt thou eat bread.” 

““ Placing elsewhere his hope.” The 
wsurer, trusting in the produce of his 


wealth lent out on usury, despite nat- 
ure ieee because he does not avail 
himself of her means for maintaining or 
enriching himself; and indirectly, be- 
cause he does not avail himself of the 
means which art, the follower and imi- 
tator of nature, would afford him for 
the same purposes. i 

6“ The ain.” The constellation 
Bodtes, or Charles’s Wain. 


46 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XII 


ARGUMENT.—Descending by a very rugged way into the seventh circle, 
where the violent are punished, Dante and his leader find it guarded 
by the Minotaur; whose fury being pacified by Virgil, they step 
downward from crag to crag; till, drawing near the bottom, they 
descry a river of blood, wherein are tormented such as have com- 
mitted violence against their neighbor. At these, when they strive 
to emerge from the blood, a troop of Centaurs, running along the 
side of the river, aim their arrows; and three of their band opposing 
our travellers at the foot of the steep, Virgil prevails so far that one 
consents to carry them both across the stream; and on their passage, 
Dante is informed by him of the course of the river, and of those 
that are punished therein. 


HE place, where to descend the precipice 
We came, was rough as Alp; and on its verge 
Such object lay, as every eye would shun. 
As is that ruin, which Adice’s stream? 
On this side Trento struck, shouldering the wave, 
Or loosed by earthquake or for lack of prop; 
For from the mountain’s summit, whence it moved 
To the low level, so the headlong rock 
Is shiver’d, that some passage it might give 
To him who from above would pass; e’en such 
Into the chasm was that descent: and there 
At point of the disparted ridge lay stretch’d 
The infamy of Crete,” detested brood 
Of the feign’d heifer:* and at sight of us 
It gnaw’d itself, as one with rage distract. 
To him my guide exclaim’d: “ Perchance thou deem’st 
The King of Athens* here, who, in the world 
Above, thy death contrived. Monster! avaunt! 
He comes not tutor’d by thy sister’s art,° 
But to behold your torments is he come.” 
Like to a bull, that with impetuous spring 
Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow 


-~ 


a“ Adice’s stream.”” After a_ great 8 “* The feign’d heifer.”? Pasiphaé. 
deal having been said on the subject, it 4“ The King of Athens.” Theseus 
still appears very uncertain at what part who was enabled by the instruction of 


of the river this fall of the mountain Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to 
happened. e destroy that monster. ‘ - 

‘ 2“ The infamy of Crete.”” The Mino- &“* Thy sister’s art.”’ Ariadne. 

aur. 


HELL 47 


Hath struck him, but unable to proceed 

Plunges on either side; so saw I plunge 

The Minotaur; whereat the sage exclaim’d: 

“Run to the passage! while he storms, ’tis well 
That thou descend.” Thus down our road we took 
Through those dilapidated crags, that oft 

Moved underneath my feet, to weight like theirs 
Unused. I pondering went, and thus he spake: 
“Perhaps thy thoughts are of this ruin’d steep, 
Guarded by the brute violence, which I 

Have vanquish’d now. Know then, that when I erst 
Hither descended to the nether Hell, 

This rock was not yet fallen. But past doubt, 

(If well I mark) not long ere He arrived,® 

Who carried off from Dis the mighty spoil 

Of the highest circle, then through all its bounds 
Such trembling seized the deep concave and foul, 

I thought the universe was thrill’d with love, 
Whereby, there are who deem, the world hath oft 
Been into chaos turn’d: and in that point, 

Here, and elsewhere, that old rock toppled down. 
But fix thine eyes beneath: the river of blood 
Approaches, in the which all those are steep’d, 
Who have by violence injured.” O blind lust! 

O foolish wrath! who so dost goad us on 

In the brief life, and in the eternal then 

Thus miserably o’erwhelm us. I beheld 

An ample foss, that in a bow was bent, 

As circling all the plain; for so my guide 

Had told. Between it and the rampart’s base, 

On trail ran Centaurs, with keen arrows arm’d, 

As to the chase they on the earth were wont. 

At seeing us descend they each one stood; 

And issuing from the troop, three sped with bows 
And missile weapons chosen first; of whom 

One cried from far: “Say, to what pain ye come 
Condemn’d, who down this steep have journey’d. Speak 
From whence ye stand, or else the bow I draw.” 
@“ He arrived.” Our Saviour, who, of the Patriarchs, and of other just men, 


according to Dante, when he ascended out of the first circle. See Canto iv, 
from Hell, carried with him the souls 


48 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To whom my guide: “Our answer shall be. made 
To Chiron, there, when nearer him we come. 
Ill was thy mind, thus ever quick and rash.” 
Then me he touch’d and spake: ‘“ Nessus is this, 
Who for the fair Deianira died, 
And wrought himself revenge’ for his own fate. 
He in the midst, that on his breast looks down, 
Is the great Chiron who Achilles nursed; 
That other, Pholus, prone to wrath.” Around 
The foss these go by thousands, aiming shafts 
At whatsoever spirit dares emerge 
From out the blood, more than his guilt allows. 
We to those beasts, that rapid strode along, 
Drew near; when Chiron took an arrow forth, 
And with the notch push’d back his shaggy beard 
To the cheek-bone, then, his great mouth to view 
Exposing, to his fellows thus exclaim’d: 
“ Are ye aware, that he who comes behind 


Moves what he touches? 


The feet of the dead 


Are not so wont.” My trusty guide, who now 
Stood near his breast, where the two natures join, 
Thus made reply: “ He is indeed alive, 
And solitary so must needs by me 
Be shown the gloomy vale, thereto induced 
By strict necessity, not by delight. 
She left her joyful harpings in the sky, 
Who this new office to my care consign’d. 
He is no robber, no dark spirit I. 
But by that virtue, which empowers my step 
To tread so wild a path, grant us, I pray, 
One of thy band, whom we may trust secure, 
Who to the ford may lead us, and convey 
Across, him mounted on his back; for he 
Is not a spirit that may walk the air.” 
Then on his right breast turning, Chiron thus 
To Nessus spake: “ Return, and be their guide. 
And if ye chance to cross another troop, | 


™*And wrought himself revenge.” 
Nessus, when dying by the hand of Her- 
cules, charged Deianira to preserve the 
gore from his wound; for that if the 
affections of Hercules should at any 
time be estranged from her, it would 


act as a charm, and recall them. Deian- 
ira had occasion to try the experiment; 
and the venom acting, as Nessus had 
intended, caused Hercules to expire in 
torments. 


HELL ; 49 


Command them keep aloof.” 


Onward we moved, 


The faithful escort by our side, along 

The border of the crimson-seething flood, 

Whence, from those steep’d within, loud shrieks arose. 
Some there I mark’d, as high as to their brow 

Immersed, of whom the mighty Centaur thus: 

“These are the souls of tyrants, who were given 


To blood and rapine. 
Their merciless wrongs. 


Here they wail aloud 
Here Alexander dwells, 


And Dionysius fell, who many a year 

Of woe wrought for fair Sicily. That brow, 
Whereon the hair so jetty clustering hangs, 
Is Azzolino;® that with flaxen locks 

Obizzo® of Este, in the world destroy’d 


By his foul step-son.” 


I turn’d me round, and thus he spake: 


To the bard revered 


“Let him 


Be to thee now first leader, me but next 


To him in rank.” 


Then further on a space 


The Centaur paused, near some, who at the throat 
Were extant from the wave; and, showing us 
A spirit by itself apart retired, 


Exclaim’d: 


“He?® in God’s bosom smote the heart, 


Which yet is honored on the bank of Thames.” 
A race I next espied who held the head, 

And even all the bust, above the stream. 

*Midst these I many a face remember’d well. 

Thus shallow more and more the blood became, 

So that at last it but imbrued the feet; 

And there our passage lay athwart the foss. 


8“ Azzolino.” Azzolino, or Ezzolino 
di Romano, a most_cruel tyrant in the 
Marca Trivigiana, Lord of Padua, Vi- 
cenza, Verona, and Brescia, who died 
in 1260. His atrocities form the subject 
of a Latin tragedy, called ‘‘ Eccerinis,” 
by Albertino Mussato, of Padua, the 
contemporary of Dante, and the most 
elegant writer of Latin verse of that 


age. 

9“ Obizzo of Este.’”? Marquis of Fer- 
rara and of the Marca d’ Ancona, was 
murdered by his own son (whom, for 
that most unnatural act, Dante calls 
his step-son) for the sake of the treas- 
ures which his rapacity had amassed. 

10 ** He.”’ “‘ Henrie, the brother of this 
Edmund, and_son to the foresaid King 
of Almaine (Richard, brother of Henry 


Til of England), as he returned from 
Affrike, where he had been with Prince 
Edward, was slain at Viterbo in Italy 
(whither he was come about _ business 
which he had to do with the Pope) by 
the hand of Guy de Montfort, the son 
of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leices- 
ter, in revenge of the same Simon’s 
death. The murther was committed 
afore the high altar, as the same Henrie 
kneeled there to hear divine service.” 
A.D. 1272.—“* Holinshed’s Chron.,”’ p. 275. 
See also Giov. Villani, ‘* Hist.” lib. vil. 
c. xl., where it is said “‘ that the heart 
of Henry was put into a golden cup, 
and placed on a pillar at London Bridge 
over the river Thames, for a memorial 
to the English of the said outrage.” 


50 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“As ever on this side the boiling wave 
Thou seest diminishing,” the Centaur said, 
“So on the other, be thou well assured, 

It lower still and lower sinks its bed, 

Till in that part it reuniting join, 

Where ’tis the lot of tyranny to mourn. 

There Heaven’s stern justice lays chastising hand 
On Attila, who was the scourge of earth, 

On Sextus and on Pyrrhus,™ and extracts 
Tears ever by the seething flood unlock’d 
From the Rinieri, of Corneto this, 

Pazzo the other named,” who fill’d the ways 
With violence and war.” This said, he turn’d, 
And quitting us, alone repass’d the ford. 


CANTO XIII 


ARGUMENT.—Still in the seventh circle, Dante enters its second com- 
partment, which contains, both those who have done violence on 
their own pé and those who have violently consumed their 
goodsythe-first tHanged into rough and knotted trees whereon the 
Harpies build their nests, the latter chased and torn by black female 
mastiffs. Among the former, Piero delle Vigne is one who tells 
him the cause of his having committed suicide, and moreover in 
what manner the souls are transformed into those trunks. Of the 
latter crew, he recognizes Lano, a Siennese, and Giacomo, a Paduan; 
and lastly, a Florentine, who had hung himself from his own roof, 
speaks to him of the calamities of his countrymen. 


RE Nessus yet had reach’d the other bank, 
We enter’d on a forest, where no track 
Of steps had worn a way. Not verdant there 
The foliage, but of dusky hue; not light 
The boughs and tapering, but with knares deform’d 
And matted thick: fruits there were none, but thorns 
Instead, with venom fill’d. Less sharp than these, 
Less intricate the brakes, wherein abide 
11“ On Sextus and on Pyrrhus.”’ Sex- Two noted marauders, by, whose depre- 
tus, either the son of Tarquin the Proud dations the public ways in Italy were 
or of Pompey the Great; and Pyrrhus, infested. The latter was of the noble 
King of Epirus. family of Pazzi in Florence. 


——— The Rinieri, of Corneto this, 
Pazzo the other named.” 


HELL oie 


Those animals, that hate the cultured fields, 
Betwixt Corneto and Cecina’s stream. 


ee the same 
Who from the Strophades the Trojan band 


Drove with dire boding of their future woe. 
Broad are their pennons, of the human form 
Their neck and countenance, arm’d with talons keen 
The feet, and the huge belly fledge with wings. 
These sit and wail on the drear mystic wood. 
The kind instructor in these words began: 
“Ere further thou proceed, know thou art now 
I’ th’ second round, and shalt be, till thou come 
Upon the horrid sand: look therefore well | 
Around thee, and such things thou shalt behold, 
As would my speech discredit.” On all sides 
I heard sad plainings breathe, and none could see 
From whom they might have issued. In amaze 
Fast bound I stood. He, as it seem’d, believed 
That I had thought so many voices came 
From some amid those thickets close conceal’d, 
And thus his speech resum’d: “If thou lop off 
A single twig from one of those ill plants, 
The thought thou hast conceived shall vanish quite.” 
Thereat a little stretching forth my hand, 
From a great wilding gather’d I a branch, 
And straight the trunk exclaim’d: “Why pluck’st thou me?” 
en, as own its side, 
These words it added: “ Wherefore tear’st me thus? 
Is there no touch of mercy in thy breast? 


y hand might e spared us, had we been 


The souls of serpents.” As a brand yet green, 

That burning at one end from the other sends 

A groaning sound, and hisses with the wind 

That forces out its way, so burst at once 

Forth from the broken splinter words and blood. 

I, letting fall the bough, remain’d as one 

1“ Betwixt Corneto and  Cecina’s to the south of Leghorn; Corneto, a 

stream.’”’ A wild and woody tract of small city on the same coast, in the 


country, abounding in deer, goats, and patrimony of the church, 
wild boars. Cecina is a river not far 


52 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Assail’d by terror; and the sage replied: 

“Tf he, O injured spirit! could have believed 
What he hath seen but in my verse described, 
He never against thee had stretch’d his hand. 
But I, because the thing surpass’d belief, 
Prompted him to this deed, which even now 


Myself I rue. 


But tell me, who thou wast; 


That, for this wrong to do thee some amends, 

In the upper world (for thither to return 

Is granted him) thy fame he may revive.” 
“That pleasant word of thine,’ the trunk replied, 
“Hath so inveigled me, that I from speech 
Cannot refrain, wherein if I indulge 

A little longer, in the snare detain’d, 


Count it not grievous. 


I it was,? who held 


Both keys to Frederick’s heart, and turn’d the wards, 
Opening and shutting, with a skill so sweet, 
That besides me, into his inmost breast 

Scarce any other could admittance find. 

The faith I bore to my high charge was such, 
It cost me the life-blood that warm’d my veins. 
The harlot, who ne’er turn’d her gloating eyes 
From Czsar’s household, common vice and pest 
Of courts, ’gainst me inflamed the minds of all; 
And to Augustus they so spread the flame, 
That my glad honors changed to bitter woes. 
My soul, disdainful and disgusted, sought 
Refuge in death from scorn, and I became, 
Just as I was, unjust toward myself. 

By the new roots, which fix this stem, I swear, 
That never faith I broke to my liege lord, 

Who merited such honor; and of you, 

If any to the world indeed return, 


2“T it was.’? Piero delle Vigne, a 
mative of Capua, who from a low condi- 
tion raised himself, by his eloquence 
and legal knowledge, to the office of 
Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick 
II; whose confidence in him was such 
that his influence in the empire became 
unbounded. The courtiers, envious of 
his exalted situation, contrived, by 
means of forged letters, to make Fred- 
erick believe that he held a secret and 


traitorous intercourse with the Pope, 
who was then at enmity with the Em- 
peror. In consequence of this supposed 
crime, he was cruelly condemned, by 
his too credulous sovereign, to lose his 
eyes; and being driven to despair by 
his unmerited calamity and disgrace, he 
put an end to his life or dashing out 
his brains against the walls of a church, 
in the year 1245. 


HELL 53 


Clear he from wrong my memory, that lies 
Yet prostrate under envy’s cruel blow.” 
First somewhat pausing, till the mournful words 
Were ended, then to me the bard began: 
“Lose not the time; but speak, and of him ask, 
If more thou wish to learn.” Whence I replied: 
“ Question thou him again of whatsoe’er 
Will, as thou think’st, content me; for no power 
Have I to ask, such pity is at my heart.” 
He thus resumed: “So may he do for thee 
Freely what thou entreatest, as thou yet 
Be pleased, imprison’d spirit! to declare, 
How in these gnarled joints the soul is tied: 
And whether any ever from such frame 
Be loosen’d, if thou canst, that also tell.” 
Thereat the trunk breathed hard, and the wind soon 
Changed into sounds articulate like these: 
“ Briefly ye shall be answer’d. When departs 
The fierce soul from the body, by itself 
Thence torn asunder, to the seventh gulf 
By Minos doom’d, into the wood it falls, 
No place assign’d, but wheresoever chance 
Hurls it; there sprouting, as a grain of spelt, 
It rises to a sapling, growing thence 
A savage plant. The harpies, on its leaves 
Then feeding, cause both pain, and for the pain 
A vent to grief. We, as the rest, shall come 
For our own spoils, yet not so that with them 
We may again be clad; for what a man 
Takes from himself it is not just he have. 
Here we perforce shall drag them; and throughout 
The dismal glade our bodies shall be hung, 
Fach on the wild thorn of his wretched shade.” 
Attentive yet to listen to the trunk 
We stood, expecting further speech, when us 
A noise surprised; as when a man perceives 
- The wild boar and the hunt approach his place 
Of station’d watch, who of the beasts and boughs 
Loud rustling round him hears. And lo! there came 
Two naked, torn with briers, in headlong flight, 


54 . THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That they before them broke each fan o’ th’ wood. 


“ Haste now,” the foremost cried, “ now haste thee, death! * 


The other, as seem’d, impatient of delay, 
Exclaiming, ‘“ Lano!* not so bent for speed 
Thy sinews, in the lists of Toppo’s field.” 
And then, for that perchance no longer breath 
Sufficed him, of himself and of a bush 


One group he made. 


Behind them was the wood 


Full of black female mastiffs, gaunt and fleet, 

As greyhounds that have newly slipt the leash. 

On him, who squatted down, they stuck their fangs, 
And having rent him piecemeal bore away 


The tortured limbs. 


My guide then seized my hand, 


And led me to the thicket, which in vain 


Mourn’d through its bleeding wounds: 


““O Giacomo 


Of Sant’ Andrea!* what avails it thee,” 

It cried, “that of me thou hast made thy screen? 

For thy ill life, what blame on me recoils?” 
When o’er it he had paused, my master spake: 

“Say who wast thou, that at so many points 

Breathest out with blood thy lamentable speech?” 


He answer’d: 


“O ye spirits! arrived in time 


To spy the shameful havoc that from me 
My leaves hath sever’d thus, gather them up, 
And at the foot of their sad parent-tree 


Carefully lay them. 


In that city® I dwelt, 


Who for the Baptist her first patron changed, 
Whence he for this shall cease not with his art 
To work her woe: and if there still remain’d not 
On Arno’s passage some faint glimpse of him, 
Those citizens, who rear’d once more her walls 


8“* Lano,” Lano, a Siennese, who be- 
ing reduced by prodigality to a state of 
extreme want, found his existence no 
longer supportable; and having been 
sent by his countrymen on a military 
expedition to assist the Florentines 
against the Aretini, took that opportuni- 
ty of exposing himself to certain death, 
in the engagement which took place at 
Toppo near Arezzo. See G. Villani, 
“ Hist.” lib. vii. c. cxix. 

4 ide O Giacomo 

Of Sant’ Andrea!” 
Jacopo da Sant’ Andrea, a Paduan, who, 
having wasted his property in the most 


wanton acts of profusion, killed him- 
self in despair. 

_ 5“ In that city.” “I was an inhab- 
itant of Florence, that city which 
changed her first patron Mars for St. 
John the Baptist; for which reason the 
vengeance of the deity thus slighted 
will never be appeased; and if some re- 
mains of his statue were not still visible 
on the bridge over the Arno, she would 
have been already leveled to the ground; 
and thus the citizens, who raised her 
again from the ashes to which Attila 
had reduced her, would have labored in 


¢ ? 


vain.’ 


HELL 55 


Upon the ashes left by Attila, 
Had labor’d without profit of their toil. 
I slung the fatal noose* from my own roof.” 


CANTO XIV 


AARGUMENT.—They arrive at the beginning of the third of those com- 
partments into which this seventh circle is divided. It is a plain 


of dry and hot sand, where three kinds of violence are punished ; 
namely, against God, against nature, and against art; and those 
who have thus sinned, are tormented by flakes of fire, which are 


eternally showering down upon them. Among the violent against 
God is found Capaneus, whose blasphemies they hear. Next, turn- 
ing to the left along the forest of self-slayers, and hawing journeyed 
a little onward, they meet with a streamlet of blood that issues from 
the forest and traverses the sandy plain. Here Virgil speaks to our 

1 Poet of a huge ancient statue that stands within Mount Ida in Crete, 
from a fissure in which statue there is a dripping of tears, from 
which the said streamlet, together with the three other infernal 
rivers, are formed. 


OON as the charity of native land 
Wrought in my bosom, I the scatter’d leaves 
Collected, and to him restored, who now 
Was hoarse with utterance. To the limit thence 
We came, which from the third the second round 
Divides, and where of justice is display’d 
Contrivance horrible. Things then first seen 
Clearlier to manifest, I tell how next 
A plain we reach’d, that from its sterile bed 
Each plant repell’d. The mournful wood waves round 
Its garland on all sides, as round the wood 3 
Spreads the sad foss. There, on the very edge, 
Our steps we stay’d. It was an area wide 
Of arid sand and thick, resembling most 
The soil that erst by Cato’ s foot was trod. 
Vengeance of heaven! Oh! how shouldst thou be fear’d 
By all, who read what here mine eyes beheld. 
Of naked spirits many a flock I saw, 
All weeping piteously, to different laws 


®“T slung the fatal noose.” We are — some calling him Rocco de’ Mozzi, and 
mot informed who this suicide was; others Lotto degli Agli. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Subjected; for on the earth some lay supine, 
Some crouching close were seated, others paced 
Incessantly around; the latter tribe 
More numerous, those fewer who beneath 
The torment lay, but louder in their grief. 
O’er all the sand fell slowly wafting down 
Dilated flakes of fire, as flakes of snow 
On Alpine summit, when the wind is hush’d. 
As, in the torrid Indian clime, the son 
Of Ammon saw, upon his warrior band 
Descending, solid flames, that to the ground 
Came down; whence he bethought him with his troop 
To trample on the soil; for easier thus 
The vapor was extinguish’d, while alone: 
So fell the eternal fiery flood, wherewith 
The marle glow’d underneath, as under stove 
The viands, doubly to augment the pain. 
Unceasing was the play of wretched hands, 
Now this, now that way glancing, to shake off 
The heat, still falling fresh. I thus began: 
“Instructor! thou who all things overcomest, 
Except the hardy demons that rush’d forth 
To stop our entrance at the gate, say who 
Is yon huge spirit, that, as seems, heeds not 
The burning, but lies writhen in proud scorn, 
As by the sultry tempest immatured ?” 
Straight he himself, who was aware I ask’d 
My guide of him, exclaim’d: “ Such as I was 
When living, dead such now Iam. If Jove 
Weary his workman out, from whom in ire 
He snatch’d the lightnings, that at my last day 
Transfix’d me; if the rest he weary out, 
At their black smithy laboring by turns, 
In Mongibello, while he cries aloud, 
‘Help, help, good Mulciber!’ as erst he cried 
In the Phlegrzean warfare; and the bolts 
Launch he, full aim’d at me, with all his might; 
He never should enjoy a sweet revenge.” 
Then thus my guide, in accent higher raised 
Than I before had heard him: “ Capaneus! 


HELL ue 59 


Thou art more punish’d, in that this thy pride 
Lives yet unquench’d: no torment, save thy rage, 
Were to thy fury pain proportion’d full.” 

Next turning round to me, ‘with milder lip 
He spake: “ This of the seven kings was one, 
Who girt the Theban walls with siege, and held, 
As still he seems to hold, God in disdain, 

And sets his high omnipotence at naught. 

But, as I told him, his despiteful mood 

Is ornament well suits the breast that wears it. 
Follow me now; and look thou set not yet 
Thy foot in the hot sand, but to the wood 
Keep ever close.” Silently on we pass’d 

To where there gushes from the forest’s bound 
A little brook, whose crimson’d wave yet lifts 
My hair with horror. As the rill, that runs 
From Bulicame,’ to be portion’d out 

Among the sinful women, so ran this 

Down through the sand; its bottom and each bank 
Stone-built, and either margin at its side, 
Whereon I straight perceived our passage lay. 

“ Of all that I have shown thee, since that gate 
We enter’d first, whose threshold is to none 
Denied, naught else so worthy of regard, 

As is this river, has thine eye discern’d, 
O’er which the flaming volley all is quench’d.” 

So spake my guide; and I him thence besought, 
That having given me appetite to know, 

The food he too would give, that hunger craved. 

“In midst of ocean,” forthwith he began, 

“A desolate country lies, which Crete is named; 
Under whose monarch, in old times, the world 
Lived pure and chaste. A mountain rises there, 
Call’d Ida, joyous once with leaves and streams, 
Deserted now like a forbidden thing. 

It was the spot which Rhea, Saturn’s spouse, 
Chose for the secret cradle of her son; 


1“ Bulicame.”” A warm medicinal turi, with less ct Roe ta conjectures 
spring near Viterbo; the waters of that Dante would imply that it was the 
which, as Landino and Vellutelli_af- scene of much licentious merriment 


firm, passed by a place of ill-fame. Ven- among those who frequented its baths. 


58 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And better to conceal him, drown’d in shouts 
His infant cries. Within the mount, upright 
An ancient form there stands, and huge, that turns | 
His shoulders toward Damiata; and at Rome, 
As in his mirror, looks. Of finest gold 

His head is shaped, pure silver are the breast 
And arms, thence to the middle is of brass, 
And downward all beneath well-temper’d steel, 
Save the right foot of potter’s clay, on which 
Than on the other more erect he stands. 

Each part, except the gold, is rent throughout; 
And from the fissure tears distil, which join’d 
Penetrate to that cave. They in their course, 
Thus far precipitated down the rock, 

Form Acheron, and Styx, and Phlegethon; 
Then by this straiten’d channel passing hence 
Beneath e’en to the lowest depth of all, 

Form there Cocytus, of whose lake (thyself 
Shalt see it) I here give thee no account.” 

Then I to him: “ If from our world this sluice 
Be thus derived; wherefore to us but now 
Appears it at this edge?” He straight replied: 

“ The place, thou know’st, is round: and though great part 
Thou have already past, still to the left 

Descending to the nethermost, not yet 

Hast thou the circuit made of the whole orb. 

Wherefore, if aught of new to us appear, 

It needs not bring up wonder in thy looks.” 

Then I again inquired: “ Where flow the streams 
Of Phlegethon and Lethe? for of one 
Thou tell’st not; and the other, of that shower, 
Thou say’st, is form’d.” He answer thus return’d: 
“ Doubtless thy questions all well pleased I hear. 
Yet the red seething wave ? might have resolved 
One thou proposest. Lethe thou shalt see, 

But not within this hollow, in the place 
Whither,* to lave themselves, the spirits go, 
Whose blame hath been by penitence removed.” 


“ The red seething wave.’”’ This he 3“ Whither.” On the other side of 


might have known was Phlegethon. Purgatory. 


HELL 59 


He added: ‘ Time is now we quit the wood. 
Look thou my steps pursue: the margins give 
. safe passage, unimpeded by the flames ; : 

For over them all vapor is extinct.” 


CANTO XV 


ARGUMENT—Taking their way upon one of the mounds by which the 
streamlet, spoken of in the last Canto, was embanked, and having 
gone so far that they could no longer have discerned the forest if 
they had turned round to look for it, they meet a troop of spirits 
that come along the sand by the side of the pier. These are they 

ho_ have done violen ; and among them Dante dis- 


tinguishes Brunetto Latini, who had been formerly his master; with 
whom, turning a little backward, he holds a discourse which occu- 
pies the remainder of this Canto. 
NE of the solid margins bears us now 
() Envelop’d in the mist, that, from the stream 
Arising, hovers o’er, and saves from fire 
Both piers and water. As the Flemings rear 
Their mound, ’twixt Ghent and Bruges, to chase back ~ 
The ocean, fearing his tumultuous tide 
That drives toward them; or the Paduans theirs 
Along the Brenta, to defend their towns 
And castles, ere the genial warmth be felt 
On Chiarentana’s * top; such were the mounds, 
So framed, though not in height or bulk to these 
Made equal, by the master, whosoe’er © 
He was, that raised them here. We from the wood 
Were now so far removed, that turning round 
I might not have discern’d it, when—we-met 
A troop of spirits, who came beside the pier. 
They each one eyed us, as at eventide 
One eyes another under a new moon; 
And toward us sharpen’d their sight, as keen 
As an old tailor at his needle’s eye. 
Thus narrowly explored by all the tribe, 


I was agnized of one, who by the skirt 
Caught me, and cried, “ What wonder have we ee : 
i“Chiarentana.” A part of the Alps much swollen as soon as the snow be 
where the Brenta rises; which river is gins to dissolve on the mountains. 


60 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And I, when he to me outstretch’d his arm, 
Intently fix’d my ken on his parch’d looks, 
That, although smirch’d with fire, they hinder’d not 
But I remember’d him; and toward his face 
My hand inclining, answer’d: “ Ser Brunetto! ? 
And are ye here?” Hethus tome: “ My son! 
Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto 
Latini but a little space with thee 
Turn back, and leave his. fellows to proceed.” 

I thus to him replied: ‘‘ Much as I can, 

I thereto pray thee; and if thou be willing 
That I here seat me with thee, I consent; 
His leave, with whom I journey, first obtain’d.” 

“O son!” said he, “ whoever of this throng 
One instant stops, lies then a hundred years, 
No fan to ventilate him, when the fire 


Smitest sorest. 


Pass thou therefore on. I close 


* Will at thy garments walk, and then rejoin 


dared not from the path descend to tread 


My troop, who go mourning their endless doom.” 
f I 


n equal ground with him, but held my head 
Bent down, as oné who walks in reverent gu 
“ What chance or destiny,” thus he began, 

“Ere the last day, conducts thee here below? 
And who is this that shows to thee the way?” 
“ There up aloft,” I answer’d, “in the life 
Serene, I wander’d in a valley lost, 
Before mine age had to its fulness reach’d. 
But yester-morn I left it: then once more 
Into that vale returning, him I met; 
And by this path homeward he leads me back.” 
“ Tf thou,” he answer’d, “ follow but thy star, 
Thou canst not miss at last a glorious haven; 
Unless in fairer days my judgment err’d. 
And if my fate so early had not chanced, 


Seeing the heavens thus bounteous to thee, I 


3“ Brunetto.”’ “ Ser Brunetto, a Flor- 
entine, the secretary or chancellor of 
the city, and Dante’s preceptor, hath 
left us a work so little read, that both 
the subject of it and the language of it 
have been mistaken. It is in the 
French spoken in the reign of St. Louis, 


/ 

under the title of ‘Tresor’ ; and con- 
tains a species of philosophical course 
of lectures divided into theory and prac- 
tice, or, as he expresses it, ‘um en- 
chaussement des choses divines. et hu- 
maines. ”” 


HELL 6r 


Had gladly given thee comfort in thy work. 
But that ungrateful and malignant race, 
Who in old times came down from Fesole, 
Ay and still smack of their rough mountain-flint, 
Will for thy good deeds show thee enmity. 
Nor wonder; for amongst ill-savor’d crabs 
It suits not the sweet fig-tree lay her fruit. 
Old fame reports them in the world for blind, 
Covetous, envious, proud. Look to it well: 
Take heed thou cleanse thee of their ways. For thee, 
Thy fortune hath such honor in reserve, 
That thou by either party shalt be craved 
With hunger keen: but be the fresh herb far 
From the goat’s tooth. The herd of Fesole 
May of themselves make litter, not touch the plant, 
If any such yet spring on their rank bed, 
In which the holy seed revives, transmitted 
From those true Romans, who still there remain’d, 
When it was made the nest of so much ill.” 

“ Were all my wish fulfill’d,” I straight replied, 
“ Thou from the confines of man’s nature yet 
Hadst not been driven forth; for in my mind 
Is fix’d, and now strikes full upon my heart, 
The dear, benign, paternal image, such 
As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me 
The way for man to win eternity: 
And how I prized the lesson, it behoves, 
That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak, — 
What of my fate thou tell’st, that write I down; 
And, with another text * to comment on, 
For her I keep it, the celestial dame, 
Who will know all, if I to her arrive. 
This only would I have thee clearly note: 
That, so my conscience have no plea against me, 
Do Fortune as she list, I stand prepared. 
Not new or strange such earnest to mine ear. 
Speed Fortune then her wheel, as likes her best; 
The clown his mattock; all things have their course.” 

Thereat my sapient guide upon his right 


8** With another text.” He refers to the prediction of Farinata, in Canto x. 
Classics. Vol. 34—D 


62 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Turn’d himself back, then looked at me, and spakes 
“ He listens to good purpose who takes note.” 
I not the less still on my way proceed, 
Discoursing with Brunetto, and inquire 
Who are most known and chief among his tribe. 
“To know of some is well ;” he thus replied, 

“ But of the rest silence may best beseem. 
Time would not serve us for report so long. 

_In brief I tell thee, that all these were clerks, 
Men of great learning and no less renown, 
By one same sin polluted in the world. 
With them is Priscian; and Accorso’s son, 
Francesco,* herds among the wretched throng: 
And, if the wish of so impure a blotch 
Possess’d thee, him ° thou also mightst have seen, 
Who by the servants’ servant was transferr’d 
From Arno’s seat to Bacchiglione, where 
His ill-strain’d nerves he left. I more would add, 
But must from further speech and onward way 
Alike desist ; for yonder I behold 
A mist new-arisen on the sandy plain. 
A company, with whom I may not sort, 


Approaches. 


I commend my Treasure to thee, 


Wherein I yet survive; my sole request.” 

This said, he turn’d, and seem’d as one of those 
Who o’er Verona’s champaign try their speed 
For the green mantle; and of them he seem’d, 
Not he who loses but who gains the prize. 


4‘ Francesco.” Accorso, a Floren- 
tine, interpreted the Roman law at Bo- 
logna, and died in 1229, at the age of 
78. His authority was so great as to ex- 
ceed that of all the other interpreters, 
so that Cino da Pistoia termed him the 
Idol of Advocates. His sepulchre, and 
that. of his son Francesco here spoken 
of, is at Bologna, with this short epi- 


taph: ‘ Sepulcrum Accursit Glossatoris 
et Francisci eus Fili.” 

5“ Him.” Andrea de’ Mozzi, who, 
that his scandalous life might be less 
exposed to observation, was translated 
either by Nicholas III or Boniface VIIT 
from the see of Florence to that of. Vi- 
cenza, through which passes the river 
Bacchiglione. At the latter of these 
places he died. 


HELL 63 


CANTO XVI 


'ARGUMENT.—Journeying along the pier, which crosses the sand, they 
are now so near the end of it as to hear the noise of the stream 
falling into the eighth circle, when they meet the spirits of three 
military men; who judging Dante, from his dress, to be a country- 
man of theirs, entreat him to stop. He complies and speaks with 
them. The two Poets then reach the place where the water descends, | 
being the termination of this third compartment in the seventh 
circle; and here Virgil, having thrown down into the hollow a cord, 
wherewith Dante was girt, they behold at that signal a monstrous 
and horrible figure come swimming up to them. 


OW came I where the water’s din was heard 
As down it fell into the other round, 
Resounding like the hum of swarming bees: 
When forth together issued from a troop, 
That pass’d beneath the fierce tormenting storm, 
Three spirits, running swift. They toward us came, 
And each one cried aloud, “Oh! do thou stay, 
Whom, by the fashion of thy garb, we deem 
To be some inmate of our evil land.” 
_ Ah me! what wounds I mark’d upon their limbs, 
Recent and old, inflicted by the flames. 
E’en the remembrance of them grieves me yet. 
Attentive to their cry, my teacher paused, 
And turned to me his visage, and then spake: 
“Wait now: our courtesy these merit well: 
And were’t not for the nature of the place, 
Whence glide the fiery darts, I should have said, 
That haste had better suited thee than them.” 
They, when we stopp’d, resumed their ancient wail, 
And, soon as they had reach’d us, all the three 
Whirl’d round together in one restless wheel. 
As naked champions, smear’d with slippery oil 
Are wont, intent, to watch their place of hold 
And vantage, ere in closer strife they meet ; 
Thus each one, as he wheel’d, his countenance 
At me directed, so that opposite 
The neck moved ever to the twinkling feet. 
“Tf woe of this unsound and dreary waste,” 
Thus one began, “ added to our sad cheer. 


64 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Thus peel’d with flame, do call forth scorn on us 
And our entreaties, let our great renown 
Incline thee to inform us who thou art, 

That dost imprint, with living feet unharm’d, 
The soil of Hell. He, in whose track thou seest 
My steps pursuing, naked though he be 

And reft of all, was of more high estate 

Than thou believest ; grandchild of the chaste 
Gualdrada,’ him they Guidoguerra call’d, 
Who in his lifetime many a noble act 
Achieved, both by his wisdom and his sword, | 
The other, next to me that beats the sand, 

Is Aldobrandi,? name deserving well, 

In the upper world, of honor; and myself, 
Who in this torment do partake with them, 
Am Rusticucci,? whom, past doubt, my wife, 
Of savage temper, more than aught beside 


Hath to this evil brought.” 


If from the fire 


I had been shelter’d, down amidst them straight 
I then had cast me; nor my guide, I deem, 
Would have restrain’d my going: but that fear 
Of the dire burning vanquish’d the desire, 
Which made me eager of their wish’d embrace. 
I then began: “ Not scorn, but grief much more, 
Such as long time alone can cure, your doom 


2“ Gualdrada.” Gualdrada was the 
daughter of Bellincione Berti, of whom 
mention is made in the Paradise, Can- 
tos xv. and xvi. He was of the family 
of Ravignani, a_ branch of the Adimari. 
The Emperor Otho IV being at a fes- 
tival in Florence, where Gualdrada was 
present, was struck with her beauty; 
and inquiring who she was, was an- 
swered by Bellincione, that she was the 
daughter of one who, if it was his 
Majesty’s pleasure, would make her ad- 
mit the honor of his salute. On over- 
hearing this, she arose from her seat, 
and blushing, in an animated tone of 
voice desired her father that he would 
not be so liberal in his offers, for that no 
man should ever be allowed that free- 
dom except him who should be her law- 
ful husband. The Emperor was not less 
delighted by her resolute modesty than 
he had before been by the loveliness of 
her person; and calling to him Guido, 
one of his barons, gave her to him in 
marriage; at the same time raising him 
to the rank of a count, and bestowing 
on her the whole of CaSentino, and a 
part of the territory of Romagna, as 


her portion. Two sons were the offspring 
of this union, Guglielmo and Ruggieri; 
the latter of whom was father of Guido- 
guerra, a man of great military skill and 
prowess; who, at the head of four hun- 
dred Florentines of the Guelf party, was 
signally instrumental to the victory ob- 
tained at Benevento by Charles of An- 
jou, over Manfredi, King of Naples, in 
1265. One of the consequences of this 
victory was the expulsion of the Ghibel- 
lini, and the re-establishment of the 
Guelfi at Florence. 

2“ Aldobrandi.” Tegghiaio Aldobran- 
di was of the noble family of Adimari, 
and much esteemed for his military tal- 
ents. He endeavored to dissuade the 
Florentines from the attack which they 
meditated against the Siennese; and the 
rejection of his counsel occasioned the 
memorable defeat which the former sus- 
tained at Montaperto, and the _conse- 


. quent banishment of the Guelfi from 


Florence. 

8 ** Rusticucci.”? Giacopo Rustictcci, a 
Florentine, remarkable for his opulence 
and the generosity of his spirit. 


HELL 6s 


Fix’d deep within me, soon as this my lord 

Spake words, whose tenor taught me to expect 
That such a race, as ye are, was at hand. 

I am a countryman of yours, who still 
Affectionate have utter’d, and have heard 

Your deeds and names renown’d. Leaving the gall, 
For the sweet fruit I go, that a sure guide 

Hath promised to me. But behoves, that far 

As to the centre first I downward tend.” 

“So may long space thy spirit guide thy limbs,” 
He answer straight return’d; “and so thy fame 
Shine bright when thou art gone, as thou shalt tell, 
If courtesy and valor, as they wont, 

Dwell in our city, or have vanish’d clean: 
For one amidst us late condemn’d to wail, 
Borsiere,* yonder walking with his peers, 
Grieves us no little by the news he brings.” 

“An upstart multitude and sudden gains, 

Pride and excess, O Florence! have in thee 
Engender’d, so that now in tears thou mourn’st!” 
Thus cried I, with my face upraised, and they 

All three, who for an answer took my words, 
Look’d at each other, as men look when truth 
Comes to their ear. “If at so little cost,” 

They all at once rejoin’d, “ thou satisfy 

Others who question thee, O happy thou! 
Gifted with words so apt to speak thy thought. 
Wherefore, if thou escape this darksome clime, 
Returning to behold the radiant stars, 

When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past,’ 
See that of us thou speak among mankind.” 

This said, they broke the circle, and so swift 
Fled, that as pinions seem’d their nimble feet. 

Not in so short a time might one have said 
*“ Amen,” as they had vanish’d. Straight my guide 
Pursued his track. I follow’d: and small space 

é* Borsiere.”” Guglielmo Borsiere, an- 5 “* When thou with aaa shalt ree 
Sine: Florentine, whom Boccaccio, in a trace the pas 
story which he relates of him, terms ‘“‘a * Quando ti giovera Hie io fut.” 
man of courteous and elegant manners, So Tasso, “ G. L.” c. xv. st. 38: 


ene eet  Breat peetiness in conversation.’ Quando mi gioverd narrar altrut 
ip e novita vedute, e dire; io fui.” 


66 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Had we past onward, when the water’s sound 
Was now so near at hand, that we had scarce 
Heard one another’s speech for the loud din. 
E’en as the river,® that first holds its course 
Unmingled from the Mount of Vesulo, 
On the left side of Apennine, toward 
The east, which Acquacheta higher up 
They call, ere it descend into the vale, 
At Forli,’ by that name no longer known, 
Rebellows o’er Saint Benedict, roll’d on 
From the Alpine summit down a precipice, 
Where space ® enough to lodge a thousand spreads; 
Thus downward from a craggy steep we found 
That this dark wave resounded, roaring loud, 
So that the ear its clamor soon had stunn’d. 
I had a cord ® that braced my girdle round, 
Wherewith I erst had thought fast bound to take 
The painted leopard. This when I had all 
Unloosen’d from me (so my master bade) 
I gather’d up, and stretch’d it forth to him. 
Then to the right he turn’d, and from the brink 
Standing few paces distant, cast it down 
Into the deep abyss. ‘“ And somewhat strange,” 
Thus to myself I spake, “ signal so strange 
Betokens, which my guide with earnest eye 


Thus follows.” 


Ah! what caution must men use 


With those who look not at the deed alone, 

But spy into the thoughts with subtle skill. 
“Quickly shall come,” he said, “ what I expect; 

Thine eye discover quickly that, whereof 


Thy thought is dreaming.” 


6“ Ben as the river.”” He compares 
the fall of Phlegethon to that of the 
Montone (a river in Romagna) from the 
Apennines above the Abbey of St. Bene- 
dict. All the other streams that rise be- 
tween the sources of the Po and the 
Montone, and fall from the left side of 
the Apennines join the Po and accom- 
pany it to the sea. 

7“ At Forli.”” Because there it loses 
the name of Acquacheta, and takes that 
of Montone. 

8 “ Where space.’’ Either because the 
abbey was capable of containing more 
than those who occupied it, or because 
(says Landino) the lords of that terri- 


Ever to that truth, 


tory, as Boccaccio related on the author. 
ity of the abbot, had intended to build 
a castle near the water-fall, and to col- 
lect within its walls the population of 
the neighboring villages. | 

®“ A cord.” It is believed that our 
poet, in the earlier part of his life, had 
entered into the order of St. Francis. 
By Mesias the rules of that profes- 
sion he had designed to mortify his car- 
nal appetites, or, as he expresses it, “ to 
take the painted leopard ” (that animal, 
which, as we have seen in a note to the 
first Canto, represented Pleasure) ‘‘ with 
this cord.” 


HELL 67 


Which but the semblance of a falsehood wears, 
A man, if possible, should bar his lip; 

Since, although blameless, he incurs reproach. 
But silence here were vain; and by these notes, 
Which now I sing, reader, I swear to thee, 

So may they favor find to latest times! 

That through the gross and murky air I spied 

A shape come ‘swimming up, that might have quell’d 
The stoutest heart with wonder; in such guise 
As one returns, who hath been down to loose 

An anchor grappled fast against some rock, 

Or to aught else that in the salt wave lies, 

Who, upward springing, close draws in his feet. 


CANTO XVII 


ARGUMENT.—The monster Geryon is described; to whom while Virgil 
is speaking in order that he may carry them both down to the next 
circle, Dante, by permission, goes a little further along the edge 
of the void, to descry the third species of sinners contained in this 
compartment, namely, those who have done violence to art; and 
then returning to his master, they both descend, seated on the back 
of Geryon. 


ws O! the fell monster ?. with the deadly sting, 
Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls 
And firm embattled spears, and with his filth 
Taints all the world.” Thus me my guide address’d, 
And beckon’d him, that he should come to shore, 
Near to the stony causeway’s utmost edge. 
Forthwith that image vile of Fraud appear’d, 
His head and upper part exposed on land, 
But laid not on the shore his bestial train. 
His face the semblance of a just man’s wore, 
So kind and gracious was its outward cheer; 
The rest was serpent all: two shaggy claws 
Reach’d to the arm-pits; and the back and breast, 
And either side, were painted o’er with nodes 
And orbits. Colors variegated more 


2“ The fell monster.”’ Fraud. 


68 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Nor Turks nor Tartars e’er on cloth of state 
With interchangeable embroidery wove, 

Nor spread Arachne o’er her curious loom. 
As ofttimes a light skiff, moor’d to the shore, 
Stands part in water, part upon the land; 

Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor, 
The beaver settles, watching for his prey; 
So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock, 


Sat perch’d the fiend of evil. 


In the void 


Glancing, his tail upturn’d its venomous fork, 

With sting like scorpion’s arm’d. Then thus my guide, 

“Now need our way must turn few steps apart, 

Far as to that ill beast, who couches there.” 
Thereat, toward the right our downward course 

We shaped, and, better to escape the flame 

And burning marle, ten paces on the verge 

Proceeded. Soon as we to him arrive, 

A little further on mine eye beholds 

A tribe of spirits, seated on the sand 

Near to the void. Forthwith my master spake: 

“ That to the full thy knowledge may extend 

Of all this round contains, go now, and mark 

The mien these wear: but hold not long discourse. 

Till thou returnest, I with him meantime 

Will parley, that to us he may vouchsafe 


The aid of his strong shoulders.” 


Thus alone, 


Yet forward on the extremity I paced 

Of that seventh circle, where the mournful tribe 

Were seated. At the eyes forth gush’d their pangs, 

Against the vapors and the torrid soil 

Alternately their shifting hands they plied. 

Thus use the dogs in summer still to ply 

Their jaws and feet by turns, when bitten sore 

By gnats, or flies, or gadflies swarming round. 
Noting the visages of some, who lay 

Beneath the pelting of that dolorous fire, 

One of them all I knew not; but perceived, 

That pendent from his neck each bore a pouch ? 


ouch.” A 
bearings o 
zoned. According to Landino, our Poet 
implies that the usurer can pretend to 
no other honor than such as he derives 


(2A 


armoria 


urse, whereon the 
each were embla- 


from his purse and his family. The de. 
scription of persons by their heraldic 
insignia is remarkable both on the 
present and several other occasions in 
this poem. 


HELL 69 


With colors and with emblems various mark’d, 
On which it seem’d as if their eye did feed. 
And when, amongst them, looking round I came, 
A yellow purse *® I saw with azure wrought, 
That wore a lion’s countenance and port. 
Then, still my sight pursuing its career, 
Another * I beheld, than blood more red, 
A goose display of whiter wing than curd. 
And one, who bore a fat and azure swine © 
Pictured on his white scrip, address’d me thus: 
“What dost thou in this deep? Go now and know, 
Since yet thou livest, that my neighbor here 
Vitaliano ® on my left shall sit. 
A Paduan with these Florentines am I. 
Ofttimes they thunder in mine ears, exclaiming, 
‘Oh! haste that noble knight,’? he who the pouch 
‘ With the three goats will bring.’” This said, he writhed 
The mouth, and loll’d the tongue out, like an ox 
That licks his nostrils. I, lest longer stay 
He ill might brook, who bade me stay not long, 
Backward my steps from those sad spirits turn’d. 
My guide already seated on the haunch 
Of the fierce animal I found; and thus 
He me encouraged. “ Be thou stout: be bold. 
Down such a steep flight must we now descend. 
Mount thou before: for, that no power the tail 
May have to harm thee, I will be i’ th’ midst.” 
As one, who hath an ague fit so near, 
His nails already are turn’d blue, and he 
Quivers all o’er, if he but eye the shade; 
Such was my cheer at hearing of his words. 
But shame soon interposed her threat, who makes 
The servant bold in presence of his lord. 
I settled me upon those shoulders huge, 
And would have said, but that the words to aid 
My purpose came not, “ Look thou clasp me firm.” 


8** A yellow purse.”? The arms of the of the Scrovigni, a noble family of 


Gianfigliazzi of Florence. : adua. nest 

4“ Another.” Those of the Ubbri- 6“ Vitaliano.”’ Vitaliano del Dente, 
achi, another Florentine family of high a Paduan. : Sy kd , 
distinction. 7“ That noble knight.” Giovanni Bu- 


5 “* A fat and azure swine.” The arms jamonti, a Florentine usurer, the most 
infamous of his time. 


7O 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


But he whose succor then not first I proved, 
Soon as I mounted, in his arms aloft, 
Embracing, held me up; and thus he spake: 
“Geryon! now move thee: be thy wheeling gyres 
Of ample circuit, easy thy descent. 

Think on the unusual burden thou sustain’st.” 
As a small vessel, backening out from land, 
Her station quits; so thence the monster loosed, 
And, when he felt himself at large, turn’d round 

There, where the breast had been, his forked tail. 
Thus, like an eel, outstretch’d at length he steer’d, 
Gathering the air up with retractile claws. 

Not greater was the dread, when Phaeton 
The reins let drop at random, whence high heaven, 
Whereof signs yet appear, was wrapt in flames; 
Nor when ill-fated Icarus perceived, 


- By liquefaction of the scalded wax, 


The trusted pennons loosen’d from his loins, 

His sire exclaiming loud, “ Ill way thou keep’st,” 
Than was my dread, when round me on each part 
The air I view’d, and other object none 

Save the fell beast. He, slowly sailing, wheels 
His downward motion, unobserved of me, 

But that the wind, arising to my face, 

Breathes on me from below. Now on our right 

I heard the cataract beneath us leap | 
With hideous crash; whence bending down to explore, 
New terror I conceived at the steep plunge; 


For flames I saw, and wailings smote mine ear: 


So that, all trembling, close I crouch’d my limbs, 

And then distinguish’d, unperceived before, 

By the dread torments that on every side 

Drew nearer, how our downward course we wound. 
As falcon, that hath long been on the wing, 

But lure nor bird hath seen, while in despair 

The falconer cries, ““ Ah me! thou stoop’st to earth,” 

Wearied descends, whence nimbly he arose 

In many an airy wheel, and lighting sits 

At distance from his lord in angry mood; 

So Geryon lighting places us on foot 


HELL 


Low down at base of the deep-furrow’d rock, 
And, of his burden there discharged, forthwith 
Sprang forward, like an arrow from the string. 


CANTO XVIII 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet describes the situation and form 


73 


circle, divided into ten Ss, which contaim as many different de- 


scriptions of traudulent sinners; but in the present Canto 


he treats 


only of two sorts: the first is of those who, either for their own - 


pleasure, or for that of another, have seduced any woman from-her- 
nes and these are scourged of demons in the first gulf: 


the other 


ft is of flatterers, who in the second gulf are condemned to re- 


main immersed in filth. 
ee ES cs eT ae 


HERE is a place within the depths of Hell 

Call’d Malebolge, all of rock dark-stain’d 

With hue ferruginous, e’en as the steep 
That round it circling winds. Right in the midst 
Of that abominable region yawns 
A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame 
Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains, 
Throughout its round, between the gulf and base 
Of the high craggy banks, successive forms 
Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised. __ 

As where, to guard the walls, full many a foss 
Begirds some stately castle, sure defence 
Affording to the space within; so here 
Were model’d these: and as like fortresses, 
E’en from their threshold to the brink without, 
Are flank’d with bridges; from the rock’s low base 
Thus flinty paths advanced, that ’cross the moles 
And dykes struck onward far as to the gulf, 
That in one bound collected cuts them off. 
Such was the place, wherein we found ourselves 
From Geryon’s back dislodged. The bard to left 
Held on his way, and I behind him moved. 

On our right hand new misery I saw, 
New pains, new executioners of wrath, 
That swarming peopled the first chasm. Below 


72 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Were naked sinners. Hitherward they came, 

“Meeting our faces; from the middle point; 

With us beyond, but with a larger stride. 

F’en thus the Romans,’ when the year returns 

Of Jubilee, with better speed to rid 

The thronging multitudes, their means devise 

For such as pass the bridge; that on one side 

All front toward the castle, and approach 

Saint Peter’s fane, on the other toward the mount. 
Each diverse way, along the grisly rock, 

Horn’d demons I beheld, with lashes huge, 

‘That on their back unmercifully smote. 

Ah! how they made them bound at the first stripe! 

None for the second waited, nor the third. 
Meantime, as on I pass’d, one met my sight, 

Whom soon as view’d, “ Of him,” cried I, “ not yet 

Mine eye hath had his fill.” I therefore stay’d 

My feet to scan him, and the teacher kind 

Paused with me, and consented I should walk 

Backward a space; and the tormented spirit, 

Who thought to hide him, bent his visage down. 

But it avail’d him naught; for I exclaim’d: 

“Thou who dost cast thine eye upon the ground, 

Unless thy features do belie thee much, 

Venedico? art thou. But what brings thee 


Into this bitter seasoning? ” 


He replied: 


“ Unwillingly I answer to thy words. . 

But thy clear speech, that to my mind recalls 
The warld I once inhabited, constrains me. 
Know then ’t was I who led fair Ghisola 

To do the Marquis’ will, however fame 

The shameful tale have bruited. Nor alone 
Bologna hither sendeth me to mourn. 

Rather with us the place is so o’erthrong’d, 


2“ F’en thus the Romans.” In the 
year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII, to rem- 
edy the inconvenience occasioned by the 
press of people who were passing over 
the bridge of St. Angelo during the time 
of the Jubilee, caused it to be divided 
lengthwise by a partition; and ordered, 
that all those who were going to St. 
Peter’s should keep one side, and those 
returning the other. G. Villani, who 
was present, describes the order that 


was preserved, lib. viii. c. xxxvi. It 
was at this time, and on this occasion, 
as the honest historian tells us, that he 
first conceived the design of *‘ compil- 
ing his book.’’ 

2“ Venedico.’”? WVenedico Caccianimi- 
co, a Bolognese, who prevailed on his 
sister Ghisola to prostitute herself to 
Obizzo da Este, arquis of Ferrara, 
whom we have seen among the tyrants, 
Canto xii. 


HELL 73 


That not so many tongues this day are taught, 
Betwixt the Reno and Savena’s stream, 
To answer Sipa* in their country’s phrase. 
And if of that securer proof thou need, 
Remember but our craving thirst for gold.” 
Him speaking thus, a demon with his thong 
Struck and exclaim’d, “ Away, corrupter! here 
Women are none for sale.” Forthwith I join’d 
My escort, and few paces thence we came 
To where a rock forth issued from the bank. 
That easily ascended, to the right 
Upon its splinter turning, we depart 
From those eternal barriers. When arrived 
Where, underneath, the gaping arch lets pass 
The scourged souls: “ Pause here,” the teacher said, 
“ And let these others miserable now 
Strike on thy ken; faces not yet beheld, 
For that together they with us have walk’d.” 
From the old bridge we eyed the pack, who came 

From the other side toward us, like the rest, 
Excoriate from the lash. My gentle guide, 
By me unquestion’d, thus his speech resumed: 
“ Behold that lofty shade, who this way tends, 
And seems too woe-begone to drop a tear. 
How yet the regal aspect he retains! 

ason is he, whose skill and prowess won 
. The ram from Colchos. To the Lemnian isle 
His passage thither led him, when those bold 
And pitiless women had slain all their males, 
There he with tokens and fair witching words 


Hypsipyle * beguiled, a, virgin young, 
Who first had all the rest herself beguiled. 
Such is the guilt condemns him to this pain, 
Here too Medea’s injuries are avenged. 
All bear him company, who like deceit 


8“*To answer, Sipa.’? He denotes tive “ sipa”’ instead either of “si” of, 
Bologna by its situation between the as Monti will have it, of “ sia.” : 
rivers Savena to the east, and Reno to 4‘ Hypsipyle.” Hypsipyle deceived 
the west of that city; and by a pecul- the other women, by concealing her 
iarity of dialect, the use of the affirma- father Thoas, when they had agreed to 


put all their males to death. 


74 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To his have practised. And thus much to know 
Of the first vale suffice thee, and of those 
Whom its keen torments urge.” Now had we come 
Where, crossing the next pier, the straiten’d path 
Bestrides its shoulders to another arch. 
Hence, in the second chasm we heard the ghosts, 
Who gibber in low melancholy sounds, 
With wide-stretch’d nostrils snort, and on themselves 
Smite with their palms. Upon the banks a scurf, 
From the foul steam condensed, encrusting hung, 
That held sharp combat with the sight and smell. 
So hollow is the depth, that from no part, 
Save on the summit of the rocky span, 
Could I distinguish aught. Thus far we came; 
And thence I saw, within the foss below, 
A crowd immersed in ordure, that appear’d 
Draff of the human body. There beneath 
Searching with eye inquisitive, I mark’d 
One with his head so grimed, ’t were hard to deem 
If he were clerk or layman. Loud he cried: 
“Why greedily thus bendest more on me, 
Than on these other filthy ones, thy ken?” 
“ Because, if true my memory,” I replied, 
“T heretofore have seen thee with dry locks; 
And thou Alessio ° art, of Lucca sprung. 
Therefore than all the rest I scan thee more.” 
Then beating on his brain, these words he spake: 
“ Me thus low down my flatteries have sunk, 
Wherewith I ne’er enough could glut my tongue.” 
My leader thus: “A little further stretch — 
Thy face, that thou the visage well mayst note 
Of that besotted, sluttish courtesan, 
Who there doth rend her with defiled nails, 
Now crouching down, now risen on her feet. 
Thais ® is this, the harlot, whose false lip 
Answer’d her doting paramour that ask’d, 
‘Thankest me much! ’—‘ Say rather, wondrously,’ 
And, seeing this, here satiate be our view.” 
5‘ Alessio.” Alessio, of am ancient where Thraso asks if Thais was obliged 
and considerable family in Lucca, called to him for the present he had sent her; 
the Intermingei. and Gnatho replies that she had_ exe 


6“ Thais.” He alludes to that pas- Piece her obligation in the most forcie 
sage in the ‘‘ Eunuchus” of Terence, le terms. 


HELL 95 


CANTO XIX 


ARGUMENT.—They come to the third gulf, wherein are punished those 


who have been guilty of simony. These are fixed with the head 
downward in certain apertures, so that no more of them than the 
legs appears without, and on the soles of their feet are seen burning 
flames. Dante is taken down by his guide into the bottom of the 
gulf; and there finds Pope Nicholas V, whose evil deeds, together 
with those of other pontiffs, are bitterly reprehended. Virgil then 
carries him up again to the arch, which affords them a passage over 
the following gulf. : 


OE to thee, Simon Magus! woe to you, 
His wreched followers! who the things of God, 
Which should be wedded unto goodness, them, 

Rapacious as ye are, do prostitute 
For gold and silver in adultery. 
Now must the trumpet sound for you, since yours 
Is the third chasm. Upon the following vault 
We now had mounted, where the rock impends 
Directly o’er the centre of the foss. 

Wisdom Supreme! how wonderful the art, 
Which thou dost manifest in heaven, in earth, 
And in the evil world, how just a meed 
Allotting by thy virtue unto all. 

I saw the livid stone, throughout the sides 
And in its bottom full of apertures, 
All equal in their width, and circular each. 
Nor ample less nor larger they appear’d 
Than, in Saint John’s fair dome? of me beloved, 
Those framed to hold the pure baptismal streams, 
One of the which I brake, some few years past, 
To save a whelming infant: and be this 
A seal to undeceive whoever doubts 
The motive of my deed. From out the mouth 
Of every one emerged a sinner’s feet, 
And of the legs high upward as the calf. 
The rest beneath was hid. On either foot 


1“ Saint John’s fair dome.” The 
apertures in the rock were of the same 
dimensions as the fonts of St. John the 
Baptist at Florence, one of which, 
Dante says, he had broken, to rescue a 


child that was playing near and fell in. 
He intimates that the motive, of his 
breaking the font had been maliciously 
represented by his enemies. 


96 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The soles were burning; whence the flexile joints 
Glanced with such violent motion, as had snapt 
Asunder cords or twisted withes. As flame, 
Feeding on unctuous matter, glides along 
The surface, scarcely touching where it moves; 
So here, from heel to point, glided the flames. 
“Master! say who is he, than all the rest 
Glancing in fiercer agony, on whom 


_ A ruddier flame doth prey?” I thus inquired. 


“Tf thou be willing,” he replied, “ that I 
Carry thee down, where least the slope bank falls, 
He of himself shall tell thee, and his wrongs.” 

Ithen: “ As pleases thee, to me is best. 

Thou art my lord; and know’st that ne’er I quit 
Thy will: what silence hides, that knowest thou.” 
Thereat on the fourth pier we came, we turn’d 

And on our left descended to the depth, 

A narrow strait, and perforated close. 

Nor from his side my leader set me down, 

Till to his orifice he brought, whose limb 

Quivering express’d his pang. “ Whoe’er thou art, 
Sad spirit! thus reversed, and as a stake 

Driven in the soil,” I in these words began; 

“ Tf thou be able, utter forth thy voice.” 

There stood I like the friar, that doth shrive 
A wretch for murder doom’d, who, e’en when fix’d, 
Calleth him back, whence death awhile delays. 

He shouted: “ Ha! already standest there? 
Already standest there, O Boniface! ? 

By many a year the writing play’d me false. 
So early dost thou surfeit with the wealth, 
For which thou fearedst not in guile to take 
The lovely lady, and then mangle her? ” 

I felt as those who, piercing not the drift 
Of answer made them, stand as if exposed 
In mockery, nor know what to reply; 

When Virgil thus admonish’d: “ Tell him quick, 


2**Q Boniface!’ The spirit mistakes as it should seem, of a prophecy, which 


Dante for Boniface VIII, who was then 


redicted the death of that Pope at a 


alive; and who he did not expect would later period. Boniface died in 1303. 
have arrived so soon, in consequence, . 


HELL 


77 


‘I am not he, not he whom thou believest.’ ” 
And I, as was enjoin’d me, straight replied. 
That heard, the spirit all did wrench his feet, 

And, sighing, next in woful accent spake: 

“ What then of me requirest? If to know 

So much imports thee, who I am, that thou 

Hast therefore down the bank descended, learn 

That in the mighty mantle I was robed,® 

And of a she-bear was indeed the son, 

So eager to advance my whelps, that there 

My having in my purse above I stow’d, 

And here myself. Under my head are drage’d 

The rest, my predecessors in the guilt 

Of simony. Stretch’d at their length, they lie 

Along an opening in the rock. ’Midst them 

I also low shall fall, soon as he comes, 

For whom I took thee, when so hastily 

I question’d. But already longer time 

Hath past, since my soles kindled, and I thus 

Upturn’d have stood, than is his doom to stand 

Planted with fiery feet. For after him, : 

- One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive, 

From forth the west, a shepherd without law,* 

Fated to cover both his form and mine. 

He a new Jason ® shall be call’d, of whom 

In Maccabees we read; and favor such 

As to that priest his King indulgent show’d, 

Shall be of France’s monarch * shown to him.” 
I know not if I here too far presumed, 


But in this strain I answer’d: 


“Tell me now 


What treasures from Saint Peter at the first 
Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys 
Into his charge? Surely he ask’d no more 


8 “ Tn the mighty mantle I was robed.” 
Nicholas III of the rsini family, 
whom the Poet therefore calls “ figliuol 
dell’ orsa,’”’ “son of the she-bear.”? He 
died in 1281. 

4* From forth the west, a_ shepherd 
without law.” Bertrand de Got, Arch- 
bishop of Bordeaux, who succeeded to 
the pontificate in 1305, and assumed the 
title of Clement V. He transferred the 
Holy See to Avignon, in 1308 (where it 
remained till 1376), and died in 1314. 


5‘*A new Jason.” ‘ But after the 
death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, 
called Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Ja- 
son, the brother of Onias, labored ua- 
derhand to be high-priest, promising 
unto the King, by intercession, three 
hundred and threescore talents of sil- 
ver, and of another revenue eighty tal- 
ents.”’—Maccab, b. ii. ch. iv. 7, 8. 

6“ Of France’s monarch.” Philip IV 
fs France. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. 
XXX, 


78 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


But ‘ Follow me!” Nor Peter,’ nor the rest, 
Or gold or silver of Matthias took, 
When lots were cast upon the forfeit place 
Of the condemned soul.® Abide thou then; 
Thy punishment of right is merited: 
And look thou well to that ill-gotten coin, 
Which against Charles ® thy hardihood inspired. 
If reverence of the keys restrain’d me not, 
Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet 
Severer speech might use. Your avarice 
O’ercasts the world with mourning, under foot 
Treading the good, and raising bad men up. 
Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist 
Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves, 
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld; 
She who with seven heads tower’d at her birth, 
And from ten horns her proof of glory drew, 
Long as her spouse in virtue took delight. 
Of gold and silver ye have made your god, 
Differing wherein from the idolater, 
* But that he worships one, a hundred ye? 
Ah, Constantine! *° to how much ill gave birth, 
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower, 
Which the first wealthy Father gain’d from thee.” 
Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath 
Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang 
Spinning on either sole. I do believe 
My teacher well was pleased, with so composed 
A lip he listen’d ever to the sound 
Of the true words I utter’d. In both arms 
He caught, and, to his bosom lifting me, 
Upward retraced the way of his descent. 
Nor weary of his weight, he press’d me close, 
Till to the summit of the rock we came, 
Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier. 
His cherish’d burden there gently he placed 


af Cokes Peter.” Acts of the Apostles, alliance between their families. See G, 
ch. Villani, “ Hist.” lib. vii. c. liv. 
ge The condemned soul,” Judas Ah, Constantine! ” He alludes to 


®“** Against Charles.’ iggy Sut ie pretended gift of the Lateran b 
was enraged against Charles I, King of Constantine to Sylvester, of whic 
Sicily, because he rejected with scorn a Dante himself seems to imply a doubt, 
proposition made by that Pope for an in his treatise “‘ De Monarchia.”’ 


HELL 79 


Upon the rugged rock and steep, a path 
Not easy for the clambering goat to mount. 
Thence to my view another vale appear’d. 


CANTO XX 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet relates the punishment of such as presumed, 
while living, to predict future events. It is to have their faces re- 
versed and set the contrary way on their limbs, so that, being de- 
prived of the power to see before them, they are constrained ever to 
walk backward. Among these Virgil points out to him Amphiarats, 
Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto (from the mention of whom he takes 
occasion to speak of the origin of Mantua), together with several 
others, who had practised the arts of divination and astrology. 


ND now the verse proceeds to torments new, 

A Fit argument of this the twentieth strain 
Of the first song, whose awful theme records 

The spirits whelm’d in woe. Earnest I look’d 
Into the depth, that open’d to my view, 
Moisten’d with tears of anguish, and beheld 
A tribe, that came along the hollow vale, 
In silence weeping: such their step as walk 
Quires, chanting solemn litanies, on earth. 

As on them more direct mine eye descends, 
Each wondrously seem’d to be reversed 
At the neck-bone, so that the countenance 
Was from the reins averted; and because 
None might before him look, they were compell’d 
To advance with backward gait. Thus one perhaps 
Hath been by force of palsy clean transposed, 

But I ne’er saw it nor believe it so. 

Now,*reader! think within thyself, so God 
Fruit of thy reading give thee! how I long 
Could keep my visage dry, when I beheld 
Near me our form distorted in such guise, 

That on the hinder parts fallen from the face 

The tears down-streaming roll’d. Against a rock 
t , so that my guide exclaim’d: 

‘“‘ What, and art thou, too, witless as the rest ? 


80 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Here pity most doth show. herself alive, 
When she is dead. What guilt exceedeth his, 
Who with Heaven’s judgment in his passion strives? 
Raise up thy head, raise up, and see the man 
Before whose eyes ' earth gaped in Thebes, when all 
Cried out ‘ Amphiarats, whither rushest? 
‘Why leavest thou the war?’ He not the less 
Fell ruining far as to Minos down, 
Whose grapple none eludes. Lo! how he makes 
The breast his shoulders; and who once too far 
Before him wish’d to see, now backward looks, 
And treads reverse his path. ‘Tiresias note, 
Who semblance changed, when woman he became 
Of male, through every limb transform’d; and then 
Once more behoved him with his rod to strike 
The two entwining serpents, ere the plumes, 
That mark’d the better sex, might shoot again. 
“ Aruns,? with rere his belly facing, comes. 
On Luni’s mountains ’midst the marbles white, 
Where delves Carrara’s hind, who wons beneath, 
A cavern was his dwelling, whence the stars 
And main-sea wide in boundless view he held. 
“The next, whose loosen’d tresses overspread 
Her bosom, which thou seest not (for each hair 
On that side grows) was Manto, she who search’d 
Through many regions, and at length her seat 
Fix’d in my native land: whence a short space 
My words detain thy audience. When her sire 
From life departed, and in servitude 
The city dedicate to Bacchus mourn’d, 
Long time she went a wanderer through the world. 
Aloft in Italy’s delightful land 
A lake there lies, at foot of that proud Alp 
That o’er the Tyrol locks Germania in, 
Its name Benacus, from whose ample breast 
A thousand springs, methinks, and more, between 
Camonica and Garda, issuing forth, 


1** Before whose eyes.”” Amphiaraiis dwelt in the mountains of Luni (from 
one of the seven kings who besieged whence that territory is still called Lu- 
Thebes. He is said to have been swal- nigiana), above Carrara, celebrated for 


lowed up by an opening of the earth. its marble. 
2“ Aruns.” Aruns is said to have 


HELL 8x 


Water the Apennine. There is a spot ® 

At midway of that lake, where he who bears 

Of Trento’s flock the pastoral staff, with him 
Of Brescia, and the Veronese, might each 
Passing that way his benediction give. 

A garrison of goodly site and strong 

Peschiera * stands, to awe with front opposed 
The Bergamese and Brescian, whence the shore 
More slope each way descends. There, whatsoe’er 
Benacus’ bosom holds not, tumbling o’er 
Down falls, and winds a river flood beneath 


Through the green pastures. 


Soon as in his course 


The stream makes head, Benacus then no more 
They call the name, but Mincius, till at last 
Reaching Governo, into Po he falls. 

Not far his course hath run, when a wide flat 
It finds, which overstretching as a marsh 

It covers, pestilent in summer oft. 

Hence journeying, the savage maiden saw 
Midst of the fen a territory waste 


And naked of inhabitants. 


To shun 


All human converse, here she with her slaves, 
Plying her arts, remain’d, and liv’d, and left 
Her body tenantless. Thenceforth the tribes, 
Who round were scatter’d, gathering to that place, 
Assembled; for its strength was great, enclosed 
On all parts by the fen. On those dead bones 
They rear’d themselves a city, for her sake 
Calling it Mantua, who first chose the spot, 

Nor ask’d another omen for the name; 

Wherein more numerous the people dwelt, 

Ere Casalodi’s madness ® by deceit 

Was wronged of Pinamonte. If thou hear 
Henceforth another origin assign’d 


8“ There is a spot.”” Prato di Fame, 
where the dioceses of Trento, Verona, 
and Brescia meet. 

4“ Peschiera.” A Bere situated 
to the south of the lake, where it emp- 
ties itself and forms the Mincius. 

5“ Casalodi’s madness.” Alberto da 
Casalodi, who had got possession of 
Mantua, was persuaded, by Pinamonte 


Buonacossi, that he might ingratiate 
himself with the people, by banishing 
to their own castles the nobles, who 
were obnoxious to them. No sooner 
was this done than Pinamonte put him- 
self at the head of the populace, drove 
out Casalodi and his adherents, and 
obtained the sovereignty for himself. 


82 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Of that my country, I forewarn thee now, 

That falsehood none beguile thee of the truth.” 
I answer’d, “ Teacher, I conclude thy words 

So certain, that all else shall be to me 

As embers lacking life. But now of these, 

Who here proceed, instruct me, if thou see 

Any that merit more especial note. 

For thereon is my mind alone intent.” 


He straight replied: 


“That spirit, from whose cheek 


The beard sweeps o’er his shoulders brown, what time 
Grecia was emptied of her males, that scarce 
The cradles were supplied, the seer was he 
In Aulis, who with Calchas gave the sign 
When first to cut the cable. Him they named 
Eurypilus: so sings my tragic strain, 
In which majestic measure well thou know’st, 
Who know’st it all. That other, round the loins 
So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot,® 
Practised in every slight of magic wile. 

“‘ Guido Bonatti* see: Asdente mark, 
Who now were willing he had tended still 
The thread and cordwain, and too late repents. 

““ See next the wretches, who the needle left, 
The shuttle and the spindle, and became 
Diviners: baneful witcheries they wrought 
With images and herbs. But onward now: 
For now doth Cain with fork of thorns ® confine 
On either hemisphere, touching the wave 
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight 
The moon was round. Thou mayst remember well: 
For she good service did thee in the gloom 
Of the deep wood.” ‘This said, both onward moved. 


6 ‘* Michael Scot.”’ Boccaccio, ‘* Dec.” 
G. viii. N. 9. ‘‘ It is not long since 
there was in this city (Florence) a great 
master in necromancy, who was called 
Michele Scotto, because he was from 
Scotland.”’ 

7 Guido Bonatti.” An astrologer of 
Forli, on whose skill Guido da Monte- 
feltro, lord of that place, so much re- 
lied, that he is reported never to have 
gone into battle, except in the hour 
recommended to him as fortunate by 
Bonatti. Landino and Vellutello speak 
of a book which he composed on the 
subject of his art. Macchiavelli men- 


~ 


tions him in the “ History _of Flore 
ence,” 1, i. p. 24. ed. 1550. “ He flour- 
ished about 1230 and 1260. Though a 
learned astronomer he was seduced by 
astrology, through which he was greatly 
in favor with many princes of that time. 
His many works are miserably spoiled 
it 

3° Cain with fork of thorns.”’ By Cain 
and the thorns, or what is still vulgarly 
called the Man in the Moon, the Poet 
denotes that luminary. The same super- 
stition is alluded to in the Paradise, 
Canto ii. 52. 


HELL ; 83 


CANTO XxXI 


ARGUMENT.—Still in the eighth circle, which bears the-nameof Male- 

ein age look down from the bridge that passes over its fifth gulf, 

pon the barterers or public peculators. These are plunged in a 

lake of boiling pitch, and guarded by Demons, to whom Virgil, 

leaving Dante apart, presents himself; and license being obtained to 
pass onward, both pursue their way. 


HUS we from bridge to bridge, with other talk, 
The which my drama cares not to rehearse, 
Pass’d on; and to the summit reaching, stood 

To view another gap, within the round 
Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs. 

Marvellous darkness shadow’d o’er the place. 

In the Venetians’ arsenal as boils 
Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear 
Their unsound vessels; for the inclement time 
Seafaring men restrains, and in that while 
His bark one builds anew, another stops 
The ribs of his that hath made many a voyage, 
One hammers at the prow, one at the poop, 
This shapeth oars, that other cables twirls, 
The mizzen one repairs, and main-sail rent; 
So, not by force of fire but art divine, 
Boil’d here a glutinous thick mass, that round 
Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld, 
But herein naught distinguish’d, save the bubbles 
Raised by the boiling, and one mighty swell 
Heave, and by turns subsiding fall. While there 
I fix’d my ken below, “ Mark! mark!” my guide 
Exclaiming, drew me toward him from the place 
Wherein I stood. I turn’d myself, as one 
Impatient to behold that which beheld 
He needs must shun, whom sudden fear unmans, 
That he his flight delays not for the view. 
Behind me I discern’d a devil black, 
That running up advanced along the rock. 
Ah! what fierce cruelty his look bespake. 
In act how bitter did he seem, with wings 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Buoyant outstretch’d and feet of nimblest tread. 
His shoulder, proudly eminent and sharp, 
Was with a sinner charged; by either haunch 
He held him, the foot’s sinew griping fast. 
“Ye of our bridge!” he cried, “ keen-talon’d fiends! 
Lo! one of Santa Zita’s elders. Him 
Whelm ye beneath, while I return for more. 
That land hath store of such. All men are there, 
Except Bonturo, barterers: of ‘no’ 
For lucre there an ‘ay’ is quickly made.” 
Him dashing down, o’er the rough rock he turn’d; 
Nor ever after thief a mastiff loosed 
Sped with like eager haste. That other sank, 
And forthwith writhing to the surface rose. 
But those dark demons, shrouded by the bridge, 
Cried, ‘“‘ Here the hallow’d visage saves not: here 
Is other swimming than in Serchio’s wave, 
Wherefore, if thou desire we rend thee not, 
Take heed thou mount not o’er the pitch.” This said, 
They grappled him with more than hundred hooks, 
And shouted: “Cover’d thou must sport thee here; 
So, if thou canst, in sécret mayst thou filch.” 
E’en thus the cook bestirs him, with his grooms, 
To thrust the flesh into the caldron down 
With flesh-hooks, that it float not on the top So. 
Me then my guide bespake: ‘Lest they descry “=~ 
That thou art here, behind a craggy rock 
Bend low and screen thee: and whate’er o 
Be offer’d me, or insult, fear thou not; 
For I am well advised, who have been erst 
In the like fray.” Beyond the bridge’s head 
Therewith he pass’d; and reaching the sixth pier, 
Behoved him then a forehead terror-proof. 
With storm and fury, as when dogs rush forth 
Upon the poor man’s back, who suddenly 
From whence he standeth makes his suit; so rush’d 
Those from beneath the arch, and against him 
Their weapons all they pointed. He, aloud: 
“ Be none of you outrageous: ere your time 
Dare seize me, come forth from amongst you one, 


HELL 85 


Who have heard my words, decide he then 

If he shall tear these limbs.”’ They shouted loud, 
“Go, Malacoda!” Whereat one advanced, 

The others standing firm, and as he came, 
“What may this turn avail him?” he exclaim’d. 

“ Believest thou, Malacoda! I had come 

Thus far from all your skirmishing secure,” 
My teacher answer’d, “ without will divine 
And destiny propitious? Pass we then; 

For so Heaven’s pleasure is, that I should lead 
Another through this savage wilderness.” 

Forthwith so fell his pride, that he let drop 

The instrument of torture at his feet, 

And to the rest exclaim’d: ‘“ We have no power 

To strike him.” Then to me my guide: “O thou! 
Who on the_bridge among the crags dost sit 

Low crouching, safely now to me return.” 

I rose, and toward him moved with speed; the fiends 
Meantime all forward drew: me terror seized, 

Lest they should break the compact they had made. 
Thus issuing from Caprona,’ once I saw 

The infantry, dreading lest his covenant 

The foe should break; so close he hemm’d them round. 

I to my leader’s side adhered, mine eyes 
With fixt and motionless observance bent 
On their unkindly visage. They their hooks 
Protruding, one the other thus bespake: 

“Wilt thou I touch him on the hip?” To whom 
Was answer’d: “Even so; nor miss thy aim.” 

But he, who was in conference with my guide, 
Turn’d rapid round; and thus the demon spake: 
“Stay, stay thee, Scarmiglione!” Then to us 
He added: “Further footing to your step 
This rock affords not, shiver’d to the base 
Of the sixth arch. But would ye still proceed, 

Up by this cavern go: not distant far, 

Another rock will yield you passage safe. 

1“ From Caprona.’”’ The surrender of in safety, to which event Dante was a 
the castle of Caprona to the combined wna Lee place in 1290. See G, Vil- 


forces of Florence and Lucca, on condi- _lani, “ Hist.”’ lib. vil. c. cxxxvi. 
tion that the garrison should march out 


Classics. Vol. 34—E. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Yesterday,’ later by five hours than now, 
Twelve hundred threescore years and six had fill’d . 
The circuit of their course, since here the way 
Was broken. Thitherward I straight despatch 
Certain of these my scouts, who shall espy 
If any on the surface bask. With them 
Go ye: for ye shall find them nothing fell. 
Come, Alichino, forth,” with that he cried, 
“ And Calcabrina, and Cagnazzo thou! 
The troop of ten let Barbariccia lead. 
With Libicocco, Draghinazzo haste, 
Fang’d Ciratta, Graffhiacane fierce, 
And Farfarello, and mad Rubicant. 
Search ye around the bubbling tar. For these, 
In safety lead them, where the other crag 
Uninterrupted traverses the dens.” 
I then: ‘“O master! what a sight is there. 
Ah! without escort, journey we alone, 
Which, if thou know the way, I covet not. 
Unless thy prudence fail thee, dost not mark 
How they do gnarl upon us, and their scowl 
Threatens us present tortures?” He replied: 
“T charge thee, fear not: let them, as they will, 
Gnarl on: ’tis but in token of their spite 
Against the souls who mourn in torment steep’d.” 
To leftward o’er the pier they turn’d; but each 
Had first between his teeth prest close the tongue, 
Toward their leader for a signal looking, 
Which he with sound obscene triumphant gave. 


a“ Yesterday.” This passage fixes the Evangelists inform us, happened “ at the 


era of Dante’s descent at Good Friday, ninth hour,” that is, our sixth, when 
in the year 1300 (thirty-four years from “ the rocks were rent, ”? and the convul- 
our blessed Lord’s incarnation being sion, according to Dante, was felt even 


added to 1266), and at the thirty- “Aith is the depths of Hell. See Canto xii. v. 


year of our Poet’s age. See Canto i. v. 3 


The awful event alluded to, the 


HELL | 87 


CANTO XXII 


ARGUMENT.—Virgil and Dante proceed, accompanied by the Demons, 
and see other sinners of the same description in the same gulf. The 


evice of Ci one of these, to escape from the Demons “ 


had laid hold on him. 
a een 


T hath been heretofore my chance to see 
Horsemen with martial order shifting camp, 
To onset sallying, or in muster ranged, 
Or in retreat sometimes outstretch’d for flight: 
Light-armed squadrons and fleet foragers 
Scouring thy plains, Arezzo! have I seen, 
And clashing tournaments, and tilting jousts, 
Now with the sound of trumpets, now of bells, 
Tabors,* or signals made from castled heights, 
And with inventions multiform, our own, 
Or introduced from foreign land; but ne’er 
To such a strange recorder I beheld, 
In evolution moving, horse nor foot, 
Nor ship, that tack’d by sign from land or star. 
With the ten Demons on our way we went; 
Ah, fearful -ompany! but in the Church 
With saints, with gluttons at the tavern’s mess. 
Still earnest on the pitch I gazed, to mark 
All things whate’er the chasm contain’d, and those 
Who burn’d within. As dolphins that, in sign 
To mariners, heave high their arched backs, 
That thence forewarn’d they may advise to save 
Their threaten’d vessel; so, at intervals, 
To ease the pain, his back some sinner show’d, 
Then hid more nimbly than the lightning-glance. 
E’en as the frogs, that of a watery moat 
Stand at the brink, with the jaws only out, 
Their feet and of the trunk all else conceal’d, 
Thus on each part the sinners stood; but soon 


1“*Tabors.”” ‘‘ Tabour, a drum, a holy war. yotsnlle describes a superb 
common accompaniment of war, is men- bark or galley belonging to a saracen 
tioned as one ahine instruments of mar- chief which, he says, was filled with 
tial music in this battle (in Richard Seals. tabours, ees Saracen horns.— 
Ceeur-de-Lion) with characteristical pro- *‘ Hist. de S. Sipe 30.” Warton’s 
priety. It was imported into the Euro- * Hist. of Bnglig Poetry,” v. i, § 4, p 


pean armies from the Saracens in the 167. 


88 © THE DIVINE COMEDY 


As Barbariccia was at hand, so they 


Drew back under the wave. 


I saw, and yet 


My heart doth stagger, one, that waited thus, 
As it befalls that oft one frog remains, 

While the next springs away: and Graffacan, 
Who of the fiends was nearest, grappling seized 
His clotted locks, and dragg’d him sprawling up, 


That he appear’d to me an otter. 


Each 


Already by their names I knew, so well 
When they were chosen I observed, and mark’d 


‘How one the other call’d. 


“© Rubicant! 


See that his hide thou thy talons flay,” 
Shouted together all the cursed crew. 


Then I: 


“Inform thee, Master! if thou may, 


What wretched soul is this, on whom their hands 


His foes have laid.” 


My leader to his side 


Approach’d, and whence he came inquired; to whom 


Was answer’d thus: 


“Born.in Navarre’s domain,? 


My mother placed me in a lord’s retinue; 
For she had borne to me a losel vile, 
A spendthrift of his substance and himself. 
The good King Thibault® after that I served: 
To peculating here my thoughts were turn’d, 
Whereof I give account in this dire heat.” 
Straight Ciratto, from whose mouth a tusk 
Issued on either side, as from a boar, 


Ripp’d him with one of these. 


*Twixt evil claws 


The mouse had fallen: but Barbariccia cried, 


Seizing him with both arms: 


“Stand thou apart 


While I do fix him on my prong transpierced.” 
Then added, turning to my guide his face, 
“Inquire of him, if more thou wish to learn, 


Ere he again be rent.” 


My leader thus: 


“Then tell us of the partners in thy guilt; 


2“ Born in Navarre’s domain.” The 
name of this peculator is said to have 
been Ciampolo. 

8“ The good King Thibault.” ‘‘ Thi- 
bault I, King of Navarre, died on June 
8, 1233s as much to be commended for 
the desire he showed of aiding the war 
in the Holy Land, as reprehensible and 
faulty for hig design of oppressing the 
rights and privileges of the Church; on 
which account it is said that the whole 


kingdom was under an interdict for the 
space of three entire years. Thibault 
undoubtedly merits praise, as for his 
other endowments, so especially for his 
cultivation of the liberal arts, his exer 
cise and knowledge of music and poetry, 
in which he so much excelled, that he 
was accustomed to compose verses and 
sing them to the viol, and to exhibit .his 
poetical compositions publicly in his pal- 
ace, that they might be criticised by. all.” 


HELL 89. 


Knowest thou any sprung of Latin land 

Under the tar?” “I parted,” he replied, 

“ But now from one, who sojourn’d not far thence; 

So were I under shelter now with him, 

Nor hook nor talon then should scare me more.” 
“Too long we suffer,” Libicocco cried; 

Then, darting forth a prong, seized on his arm, 

And mangled bore away the sinewy part. 

Him Draghinazzo by his thighs beneath 

Would next have caught; whence angrily their chief, 

Turning on all sides round, with threatening brow 

Restrain’d them. When their strife a little ceased, 

Of him, who yet was gazing on his wound, 

My teacher thus without delay inquired: 

“Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap 

Parting, as thou hast told, thou camest to shore?” 
“Tt was the friar Gomita,’* he rejoin’d, 

“He of Gallura, vessel of all guile, 

Who had his master’s enemies in hand, 

And used them so that they commend him well. 

Money he took, and them at large dismiss’d; 

So he reports; and in each other charge 

Committed to his keeping play’d the part 

Of barterer to the height. With him doth herd 

The chief of Logodoro, Michel Zanche.® 

Sardinia is a theme whereof their tongue 

Is never weary. Out! alas! behold 

That other, how he grins. More would I say, 

But tremble lest he mean to maul me sore.” 
Their captain then to Farfarello turning, 

Who roll’d his moony eyes in act to strike, 

Rebuked him thus: “ Off, cursed bird! avaunt!” 
“If ye desire to see or hear,” he thus 

Quaking with dread resumed, “or Tuscan spirits 

Or Lombard, I will cause them to appear. 

Meantime let these ill talons bate their fury, 


4“ The friar Gomita.’”?’ He was in- of Nino will recur in the notes to Canto 
trusted by Nino de’ Visconti with the Xxxlii, and in the Purgatory, Canto viii, 
government of Gallura, one of the four 5 “ Michel Zanche.”? The President of 
Jurisdictions into which Sardinia was di- | Logodoro, another of the four Sardinian 
vided. Having his master’s enemies in jurisdictions. See Canto xxxiii. Note 
his power he took a bribe from them, to v. 136. 


and allowed them to escape. Mention 


go THE DIVINE COMEDY 


So that no vengeance they may fear from them, 


And I, remaining in this self-same piace. 
Wh : S torveo 
Our custom_is to call ea : 
Cagnazzo at that word deriding grinn’d, 
Then wageg’d the head and spake: “ Hear his device, 
ischi ge him down.” 
Whereto he thus, who fail’d not in rich store 
Of nice-wove toils: “ Mischief, forsooth, extreme! 
Meant only to procure myself more woe.” 
No longer Alichino then refrain’d, 
But thus, the rest gainsaying, him bespake: 
“If thou do cast thee down, I not on foot 
Will chase thee, but above the pitch will beat 
My plumes. Quit we the vantage ground, and let 
The bank be as a shield; that we may see, 
If singly thou prevail against us all.” 
- Now, reader, of new sport expect to hear. 
‘They each one turn’d his eyes to the other shore, 
He first, who was the hardest to persuade. 
The spirit of Navarre chose well his > time, 


ta ges 
Escaping, disappointed their resolve 

Them quick Feseremrent stung, put him the most 
Who was the cause Of fatltre: in pursuit 


He therefore sped, exclaiming, “Thou art caught.” 
But little it avail’d; terror outstripp’d 

His following flight; the other plunged beneath, 

And he with upward pinion raised his breast: 

FE’en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives 

The falcon near, dives instant down, while he 

Enraged and spent retires. That mockery 

In Calcabrina fury stirr’d, who flew 

After him, with desire of strife inflamed; 

And, for the barterer had ’scaped, so turn’d 

His talons on his comrade. O’er the dyke 

In grapple close they join’d; but the other proved 

A goshawk able to rend well his foe; 

And in the boiling lake both fell. The heat 


33 


HELL 91 


Was umpire soon between them; but in vain 

To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued 
Their pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest, 

That chance lamenting, four in flight despatch’d 
From the other coast, with all their weapons atm’d. 
They, to their post on each side speedily 
Descending, stretch’d their hooks toward the fiends, 
Who flounder’d, inly burning from their scars: 
And we departing left them to that broil. 


CANTO XXIII 


ARGUMENT.—The enraged Demons pursue Dante, but he is preserved 
from them by Virgil. On reaching the sixth gulf, he beholds the 
punishment of the hypocrites; which is, to pace continually round 
the gulf under the pressure of caps and hoods, that are gilt on the 
outside, but leaden within. He is addressed by two of these, Cata- 
lano and Loderingo, Knights of St. Mary, otherwise called Joyous 
Friars of Bologna. Caiaphas is seen fixed to a cross on the ground, 
and lies so stretched along the way, that all tread on him in passing. 


N silence and in solitude we went, 
One first, the other following his steps, 
As minor friars journeying on their road. 
The present fray had turn’d my thoughts to muse 
Upon old Asop’s fable, where he told 
What fate unto the mouse and frog befell; 
For language hath not sounds more like in sense, 
Than are these chances, if the origin 
And end of each be heedfully compared. 
And as one thought bursts from another forth, 
So afterward from that another sprang, 
Which added doubly to my former fear. 
For thus I reason’'d: “ These through us have been 
So foil’d, with loss and mockery so complete, 
As needs must sting them sore. If anger then 
Be to their evil will conjoin’d, more fell 
1“ 7sop’s fable.”” The fable of the off by a kite. It is not among those 
frog, who offered to carry the mouse Greek fables which go under the name 


across a ditch, with the intention of of AZsop. 
drowning him, "when both were carried 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


They shall pursue us, than the savage hound 
Snatches the leveret panting ’twixt his jaws.” 

Already I perceived my hair stand all 
On end with terror, and look’d eager back. 

“Teacher,” I thus began, “if speedily 
Thyself and me thou hide not, much I dread 
Those evil talons. Even now behind 
They urge us: quick imagination works 
So forcibly, that I already feel them.” 

He answer’d: “ Were I form’d of leaded glass, 
I should not sooner draw unto myself 
Thy outward image, than I now imprint 
That from within. This moment came thy thoughts 
Presented before mine, with similar act 
And countenance similar, so that from both— 

I one design have framed. If the right coast 
Incline so much, that we may thence descend 
Into the other chasm, we shall escape 

Secure from this imagined pursuit.” 

He had not spoke his purpose to the end, 
When I from far beheld them with spread wings 
Approach to take us. Suddenly my guide 
Caught me, even as a mother that from sleep 
Is by the noise aroused, and near her sees 
The climbing fires, who snatches up her babe 
And flies ne’er pausing, careful more of him 
Than of herself, that but a single vest 
Clings round her limbs. Down from the jutting beach 
Supine he cast him to that pendent rock, 

Which closes on one part the other chasm. 

Never ran water with such hurrying pace 
Adown the tube to turn a land-mill’s wheel, 
When nearest it approaches to the spokes, 

As then along that edge my master ran, 
Carrying me in his bosom, as a child, 

Not a companion. Scarcely had his feet 
Reach’d to the lowest of the bed beneath, 1 
When over us the steep they reach’d: but fear 
In him was none; for that high Providence, 
Which placed them ministers of the fifth foss, 


% 


HELL 93 


Power of departing thence took from them all. 
There in the depth we saw a painted tribe, 
Who paced with tardy steps around, and wept, 
Faint in appearance and o’ercome with toil. 
Caps had they on, with hoods, that fell low down 
Before their eyes, in fashion like to those 
Worn by the monks in Cologne. Their outside 
Was overlaid with gold, dazzling to view, 
But leaden all within, and of such weight, 
That Frederick’s* compared to these were straw. 
Oh, everlasting wearisome attire! 
We yet once more with them together turn’d 
To leftward, on their dismal moan intent. 
But by the weight opprest, so slowly came 
The fainting people, that our company 
Was changed, at every movement of the step. 
Whence I my guide address’d: “ See that thou find 
Some spirit, whose name may by his deeds be known; 
And to that end look round thee as thou go’st.” 
Then one, who understood the Tuscan voice, 
Cried after us aloud: “Hold in your feet, 
Ye who so swiftly speed through the dusk air. 
Perchance from me thou shalt obtain thy wish.” 
Whereat my leader, turning, me bespake: 
“Pause, and then onward at their pace proceed.” 
I staid, and saw two spirits in whose look 
Impatient eagerness of mind was mark’d 
To overtake me; but the load they bare 
And narrow path retarded their approach. 
- Soon as arrived, they with an eye askance 
Perused me, but spake not: then turning, each 
To other thus conferring said: “This one 
Seems, by the action of his throat, alive; 
And, be they dead, what privilege allows 
They walk unmantled by the cumbrous stole?” 
Then thus to me: “ Tuscan, who visitest 
The college of the mourning hypocrites, 
2“ Monks in Cologne.” They wore who were guilty of high treason by 
their cowls ee Ne TS ap Oey. wrapping them up in lead and casting 


8“ Prederick’s.” them into a furnace 
erick II is said to have nanisted those 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Disdain not to instruct us who thou art.” 
“ By Arno’s pleasant stream,” I thus replied, 
“In the great city I was bred and grew, 
And wear the body I have ever worn. 
But who are ye, from whom such mighty grief, 
As now I witness, courseth down your cheeks? 
What torment breaks forth in this bitter woe?” 
“Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue” 
One of them answer’d, ‘“‘ are so leaden gross, 
That with their weight they make the balances 
To crack beneath them. Joyous friars* we were, 
Bologna’s natives; Catalano I, 
He Loderingo named; and by thy land 
Together taken, as men use to take 
A single and indifferent arbiter, 
To reconcile their strifes. How there we sped, 
Gardingo’s vicinage® can best declare.” 
“© friars!” I began, “ your miseries—” 
But there brake off, for one had caught mine eye, 
Fix’d to.a cross with three stakes on the ground: 
He, when he saw me, writhed himself, throughout 


Distorted, ruffling with deep sighs his beard. 
And Catalano, who thereof was ’ware, 

Thus spake: “ That pierced -spirit,® whom intent 
Thou view’st, was he who gave the Pharisees 
Counsel, that it Were fitting for one man 


4“ Joyous friars.’? ‘‘ Those who ruled 
the city of Florence on the part of the 
Ghibelfines perceiving this discontent 
and murmuring, which they were fearful 
might produce a rebellion against them- 
selves, in order to satisfy the people, 
made choice of two knights, Frati Go- 
denti (joyous friars) of Bologna, on 
whom they conferred the chief power in 
Florence; one named M. Catalano de’ 
Malavolti, the other M. Loderingo di 
Liandolo; one an adherent of the Guelf, 
the other of the Ghibelline party. It 
is to be remarked, that the eb Friars 
were called Knights of St. Mary, and be- 
came knights on taking that habit: their 
robes were white, the mantle sable, and 
the arms a white field and red- cross 
with two stars: their office was to de- 
fend widows and orphans: they were to 
act as mediators; they had internal reg- 
ulations, like other religious bodies, The 
above-mentioned M.. Loderingo was the 
founder of that order. But it was not 
long before they too well deserved the 


appellation given them, and were found 
to be more bent on enjoying themselves 
than on any other object. These two 
friars were called in by the Florentines, 
and had a residence assigned them in 
the palace belonging to the people, over 
against the Abbey. Such was the de- 
pendence placed on the character of 
their order, that it was expected they 
would be impartial, and would save the 
commonwealth any unnecessary ex- 
pense; instead of which, though inclined 
to opposite parties, they secretly and 
hypocritically concurred in promoting 
their own advantage rather than the 

ublic good.”—G. Villani, b. vii. c. xiii. 

his happened in 1266. 

5“ Gardingo’s vicinage.” The name 
of that pay of the city which was in- 
habited by the powerful Ghibelline fam- 
ily of the Uberti, and destroyed under 
the partial and iniquitous administra- 
tion of Catalano and Loderingo. 

¢** That pierced spirit.” Caiaphas, 


HELL 95 


To suffer for the people. He doth lie 
Transverse; nor any passes, but him first 
Behoves make feeling trial how each weighs, 
In straits like this along the foss are placed 
The father of his consort,’ and the rest 
Partakers in that council, seed of ill 
And sorrow to the Jews.”’ I noted then, 
How Virgil gazed with wonder upon him, 
Thus abjectly extended on the cross 
In banishment eternal. To the friar 
He next his words address’d: ‘“ We pray ye tell, 
If so be lawful, whether on our right 
Lies any opening in the rock, whereby 
We both may issue hence, without constraint 
On the dark angels, that compell’d they come 
To lead us from this depth.” He thus replied: 
“Nearer than thou dost hope, there is a rock 
From the great circle moving, which o’ersteps 
Fach vale of horror, save that here his cope 
Is shatter’d. By the ruin ye may mount: 
For on the side it slants, and most the height 
Rises below.” With head bent down awhile 
My leader stood; then spake: “ He warn’d us ill, 
Who yonder hangs the sinners on his hook.” 
To whom the friar: _“ At Bologna erst 
I many voices of the devil heard; 
Among the rest was said, ‘ He is a liar, 
‘And the father of lies!’” When he had spoke, 
My leader with large strides proceeded on, 
Somewhat disturb’d with anger in his look. 
I therefore left the spirits heavy laden, 
And, following, his beloved footsteps mark’d. 


7“ The father of his consort.’? Annas, father-in-law to Caiaphas. 


96 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXIV 


ARGUMENT.—Under the escort of his faithful master, Dante not with- 
out difficulty makes his way out of the sixth gulf; and in the 
seventh, sees the robbers tormented by venomous and pestilent 
serpents. The soul of Vanni Fucci, who had pillaged the sacristy 
of St. James in Pistoia, predicts some calamities that impended 
over that city, and over the Florentines. 


N the year’s early nonage,’ when the sun 

] Tempers his tresses in Aquarius’ urn, 
And now toward equal day the nights recede; 
When as the rime upon the earth puts on 
Her dazzling sister’s image, but not long 
Her milder sway endures; then riseth up 
The village hind, whom fails his wintry store, 
And looking out beholds the plain around 
All whiten’d; whence impatiently he smites 
His thighs, and to his hut returning in, 
There paces to and fro, wailing his lot, 
As a discomfited and helpless man; 
Then comes he forth again, and feels new hope 
Spring in his bosom, finding e’en thus soon 
The world hath changed its countenance, grasps his crook, 
And forth to pasture drives his little flock: 
So me my guide dishearten’d, when I saw 
His troubled forehead; and so speedily 
That ill was cured; for at the fallen bridge 
Arriving, toward me with a look as sweet, 
He turn’d him back, as that I first beheld 
At the steep mountain’s foot. Regarding well 
The ruin, and some counsel first maintain’d 
With his own thought, he open’d wide his arm 
And took me up. As one, who, while he works, 
Computes his labor’s issue, that he seems 
Still to foresee the effect; so lifting me 
Up to the summit of one peak, he fix’d 
His eye upon another. “Grapple that,” 
tie latte Gata antares orhee the aun | oO enoue, bitters Eislted toy aie rising 


enters into Aquarius, and the equinox ~ sun. 
is drawing near, when the hoar-frosts in 


' HELL 


Said he, “ but first make proof, if it be such 
As will sustain thee.” For one capt with lead 
This were no journey. Scarcely he, though light, 
And I, though onward push’d from crag to crag, 
Could mount. And if the precinct of this coast 
Were not less ample than the last, for him 

I know not, but my strength had surely fail’d. 
But Malebolge all toward the mouth 

Inclining of the nethermost abyss, 

The site of every valley hence requires, 

That one side upward slope, the other fall. 

At length the point from whence the utmost stone 
Juts down, we reach’d; soon as to that arrived, 

So was the breath exhausted from my lungs 
I could no further, but did seat me there. 

“Now needs thy best of man;” so spake my guide: 
“For not on downy plumes, nor under shade 
Of canopy reposing, fame is won; 

Without which whosoe’er consumes his days, 
Leaveth such vestige of himself on earth, 
As smoke in air or foam upon the wave. 
Thou therefore rise: vanquish thy weariness 
By the mind’s effort, in each struggle form’d 
To vanquish, if she suffer not the weight 
Of her corporeal frame to crush her down. | 
A longer ladder yet remains to scale. | 
From these to have escaped sufficeth not, 

If well thou note me, profit by my words,” 

I straightway rose, and show’d myself less spent 
Than I in truth did feel me. “On,” I cried, 
“For I am stout and fearless.” Up the rock 
Our way we held, more rugged than before, 
Narrower, and steeper far to climb. From talk 
I ceased not, as we journey’d, so to seem | 
Least faint; whereat a voice from the other foss 
Did issue forth, for utterance suited ill. 

Though on the arch that crosses there I stood, 

What were the words I knew not, but who spake 

Seem’d moved in anger. Down I stoop’d to look; 
| But my quick eye might reach not to the depth 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


For shrouding darkness; wherefore thus I spake: 
“To the next circle, teacher, bend thy steps, 

And from the wall dismount we; for as hence 

I hear and understand not, so I see 

Beneath, and naught discern.” “I answer not,” 
Said he, “ but by the deed. To fair request 
Silent performance maketh best return.” 

We from the bridge’s head descended, where 
To the eighth mound it joins; and then, the chasm 
Opening to view, I saw a crowd within 
Of serpents terrible, so strange of shape 
And hideous, that remembrance in my veins 
Yet shrinks the vital current. Of her sands 
Let Libya vaunt no more: if Jaculus, 

Pareas and Chelyder be her brood, 

Cenchris and Amphisbzena, plagues so dire 

Or in such numbers swarming ne’er she show’d, 
Not with all Ethiopia, and whate’er 

Above the Erythrzan sea is spawn’d. 

Amid this dread exuberance of woe 

Ran naked spirits wing’d with horrid fear, 

Nor hope had they of crevice where to hide, 

Or heliotrope to charm them out of view. 

With serpents were their hands behind them bound, 
Which through their reins infix’d the tail and head, 
Twisted in folds before. And lo! on one 

Near to our side, darted an adder up, 

And, where the neck is on the shoulders tied, 
Transpierced him. Far more quickly than e’er pen 
Wrote O or I, he kindled, burn’d, and changed 

To ashes all, pour’d out upon the earth. 

When there dissolved he lay, the dust again 
Uproll’d spontaneous, and the self-same form 
Instant resumed. So mighty sages tell, 

The Arabian Phoenix, when five hundred years 
Have well-nigh circled, dies, and springs forthwith 
Renascent: blade nor herb throughout his life 

He tastes, but tears of frankincense alone 

And odorous amomum: swaths of. nard 

‘And myrrh his funeral shroud. As one that falls, 


HELL 99 


He knows not how, by force demoniac dragg’d 
To earth, or through obstruction fettering up 
In chains invisible the powers of man, 

Who, risen from his trance, gazeth around, 
Bewilder’d with the monstrous agony 

He hath endured, and wildly staring sighs; 
So stood aghast the sinner when he rose. 

Oh! how severe God’s judgment, that deals out 
Such blows in stormy vengeance. Who he was, 
My teacher next inquired; and thus in few 
He answer’d: ‘ Vanni Fucci? am I call’d, 

Not long since rained down from Tuscany 
To this dire gullet. Me the bestial life 

And not the human pleased, mule that I was, 
Who in Pistoia found my worthy den.” 

I then to Virgil: “ Bid him stir not hence; 
And ask what crime did thrust him thither: once 
A man I knew him, choleric and bloody.” 

The sinner heard and feign’d not, but toward me 
His mind directing and his face, wherein 
Was dismal shame depictured, thus he spake: 

“It grieves me more to have been caught by. thee 
In this sad plight, which thou beholdest, than 
When I was taken from the other life. 

I have no power permitted to deny 

What thou inquirest. I am doom’d thus low 
To dwell, for that the sacristy by me 

Was rifled of its goodly ornaments, 

And with the guilt another falsely charged. 
But that thou mayst not joy to see me thus, 

So as thou e’er shalt ’scape this darksome realm, 
Open thine ears and hear what I forebode. 
‘Reft of the Neri first Pistoia*® pines; 

Then Florence* changeth citizens and laws; 


2 Vanni Fucci.’”’ He is said to have chi party of Pistoia, with the assistance 
been an illegitimate offspring of the and favor of the Bianchi, who ruled 
family of Lazari in Pistoia, and, having Florence, drove out the party of the 
robbed the sacristy of the church of St. Neri from the former place, destroying 
ames in that city, and to have charged their houses, palaces, and farms. 


anni della Nona with the sacrilege; in 4“ Then Florence.”’ “Soon after the 
consequence of which accusation the lat- Bianchi will be expelled from Florence 
ter suffered death. the Neri will prevail, and the laws an 


“ Pistoia.” In May, 1301, the Bian- people will be changed.’ 


100 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


From Valdimagra,®> drawn by wrathful Mars, 
A vapor rises, wrapt in turbid mists, 

And sharp and eager driveth on the storm 

With arrowy hurtling o’er Piceno’s field, 
Whence suddenly the cloud shall burst, and strike 
Each helpless Bianco prostrate to the ground. 
This have I told, that grief may rend thy heart.” 


CANTO XXV 


ARGUMENT.—The sacrilegious Fucci vents his fury in blasphemy, is 
seized by serpents, and flying is pursued by Cacus in the form of a 
Centaur, who is described with a swarm of serpents on his haunch, 
and a dragon on his shoulders breathing forth fire. Our Poet then 
meets with the spirits of three of his countrymen, two of whom 


undergo a marvellous transformation in his presence. 


HEN he had spoke, the sinner raised his hands 4 
Pointed in mockery and cried: “ Take them, God! 


I level them at thee.” 


From that day forth 


The serpents were my friends; for round his neck 
One of them rolling twisted, as it said, 


“Be silent, tongue!” 


Another, to his arms 


Upgliding, tied them, riveting itself 

So close, it took from them the power to move. 
Pistoia! ah, Pistoia! why dost doubt 

To turn thee into ashes, cumbering earth 

No longer, since in evil act so far 

Thou hast outdone thy seed? I did not mark, 

Through all the gloomy circles of the abyss, 

Spirit, that swell’d so proudly ’gainst his God; 


8“* From Valdimagra.”” The commen- 
tators explain this prophetical threat to 
allude to the ae obtained by the 
Marquis Morello Malaspina of Valdi- 
magra (a tract of country now called the 
Lunigiana), who put himself at the head 
of the Neri, and defeated their op- 
ponents, the Bianchi, in the Campo Pi- 


ceno near Pistoia, soon after the occure ‘ 


rence related in the preceding note on 
Vv. 142. f this engagement I find no 
mention in Villani. Balbo (“ Vita di 
Dante,” v. ii. p. 143) refers to Gerini, 
‘“Memorie Storiche di Lunigiana,” tom. 
ii. p. 123, for the whole history of this 
Morello or Morollo. Currado Malaspina 
is introduced in the eighth Canto of the 


Purgatory; where it appears, that al- 
though on the present occasion they 
espoused contrary sides, most impor- 
tant favors were nevertheless conferred 
by that family on our Poet, at a subse 
quent period of his exile, in 1307. 

1“ His hands.” The practice of 
thrusting out the thumb between the 
first and second fingers, to express the 
feelings of insult and contempt, has 
prevailed very generally among the na- 
tions of Europe, and for many ages had 
been denominated ‘ making the fig,’ or 
described at least by some equivalent 
expression.’’—Douce’s “ Illustrations of 
Shakespeare,” vol. i. p. 492, ed. 1807. 


HELE. " 10% 


Not him,? who headlong fell from Thebes. He fled, 
Nor utter’d more; and after him there came 
A centaur full of fury, shouting, “ Where, 
Where is the caitiff?” On Maremma’s marsh? 
Swarm not the serpent tribe, as on his haunch 
They swarm’d, to where the human face begins, 
Behind his head, upon the shoulders, lay 
With open wings a dragon, breathing fire 
On whomsoe’er he met. To me my guide: 
*Cacus is this, who underneath the rock 
Of Aventine spread oft a lake of blood. 
He, from his brethren parted, here must tread 
A different journey, for his fraudful theft 
Of the great herd that near him stall’d; whence found 
His felon deeds their end, beneath the mace 
Of stout Alcides, that perchance laid on 
A hundred blows, and not the tenth was felt.” 

While yet he spake, the centaur sped away: 
And under us three spirits came, of whom 
Nor I nor he was ware, till they exclaim’d, 
“Say who are ye!” We then brake off discourse, 
Intent on these alone. I knew them not: 
But, as it chanceth oft, befell, that one 
Had need to name another. ‘“ Where,” said he, 
“Doth Cianfa* lurk?” I, for a sign my guide 
Should stand attentive, placed against my lips 
The finger lifted. If, O reader! now 
Thou be not apt to credit what I tell, 
No marvel; for myself do scarce allow 
The witness of mine eyes. But as I look’d 
Toward them, lo! a serpent with six feet 
Springs forth on one, and fastens full upon him: 
His midmost grasp’d the belly, a forefoot 
Seized on each arm (while deep in either cheek 
He flesh’d his fangs); the hinder on the thighs 
Were spread, *twixt which the tail inserted curl’d 
Upon the reins behind. Ivy ne’er clasp’d 
A dodder’d oak, as round the other’s limbs 
®** Not him.’”? Capaneus. Canto xiv. 4‘ Cianfa.”” He is said to have been 


.2“ On Maremma’s marsh.” Anexten- of the family of Donati at Florence. 
Sive tract near the seashore of Tuscany. 


102 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The hideous monster intertwined his own. 
Then, as they both had been of burning wax, 
Each melted into other, mingling hues, 
That which was either now was seen no more. 
Thus up the shrinking paper, ere it burns, 
A brown tint glides, not turning yet to black, 
And the clean white expires. The other two 
Look’d on exclaiming, “ Ah! how dost thou change, 
Agnello!® See! Thou art nor double now, 
Nor only one.” The two heads now became 
One, and two figures blended in one form 
Appear’d, where both were lost. Of the four lengths 
Two arms were made: the belly and the chest, 
The thighs and legs, into such members changed 
As never eye hath seen. Of former shape 
All trace was vanish’d. Two, yet neither, seem’d 
That image miscreate, and so pass’d on 
With tardy steps. As underneath the scourge 
Of the fierce dog-star that.lays bare the fields, 
Shifting from brake to brake the lizard seems 
A flash of lightning, if he thwart the road; 
So toward the entrails of the other two 
Approaching seem’d an adder all on fire, 
As the dark pepper-grain livid and swart. 
In that part, whence our life is nourish’d first, 
Once he transpierced; then down before him fell 
Stretch’d out. The pierced spirit look’d on him, 
But spake not; yea, stood motionless and yawn’d, 
As if by sleep or feverous fit assail’d. 
He eyed the serpent, and the serpent him. 
One from the wound, the other from the mouth 
Breathed a thick smoke, whose vapory columns join’d, 
Lucan in mute attention now may hear, 

Nor thy disastrous fate, Sabellus, tell, 
Nor thine, Nasidius. Ovid now be mute. 
What if in warbling fiction he record 
Cadmus and Arethusa, to a snake 
Him changed, and her into a fountain clear, 
= envy not; for never face to face 

5“ Apnello.”” Agnello Brunelleschi. 


= 
L/ pe 3 
Nats 


ee 
ouch 
Two natures thus transmuted did he sing, 14% 
Wherein both shapes were ready to assume a 
The other’s substance. They in mutual guise BP 
So answer’d that the serpent split his train 
Divided to a fork, and the pierced spirit 
Drew close his steps together, legs and thighs 
Compacted, that no sign of juncture soon. 
Was visible: the tail, disparted, took | 
The figure which the spirit lost; its skin | 

Softening, his indurated to a rind. 

The shoulders next I mark’d, that entering join’d 

The monster’s arm-pits, whose two shorter feet 

So lengthen’d, as the others dwindling shrunk. 

The feet behind then twisting up became 

That part that man conceals, which in the wretch 

Was cleft in twain. While both the shadowy smoke 
With a new color veils, and generates 

The excrescent pile on one, peeling it off 

From the other body, lo! upon his feet 

One upright rose, and prone the other fell. 

Nor yet their glaring and malignant lamps 

Were shifted, though each feature changed beneath. 

Of him who stood erect, the mounting face 

Retreated toward the temples, and what there 
Superfluous matter came, shot out in ears 

From the smooth cheeks; the rest, not backward drage’d, 
Of its excess did shape the nose; and swell’d 

Into due \size protuberant the lips. 

He, on the earth who lay, meanwhile extends 

His sharpen’d visage, and draws down the ears 

Into the head, as doth the slug his horns. 

His tongue, continuous before and apt 

For utterance, severs; and the other’s fork 

Closing unites. That done, the smoke was laid. 

The soul, transform’d into the brute, glides off, 
Hissing along the vale, and after him 

The other talking sputters; but soon turn’d 

His new-grown shoulders on him, and in few 

Thus to another spake: “ Along this path 
Crawling, as 1 have done, speed Buoso now 


HELL 103 


ras 


{ 7? 


104 ‘THE DIVINE COMEDY 


So saw I fluctuate in successive change 
The unsteady ballast of the seventh hold: 
And here if aught my pen have swerved, events 
So strange may be its warrant. O’er mine eyes 
Confusion hung, and on my thoughts amaze. 
Yet ’scaped they not so covertly, but well 
I mark’d Sciancato: he alone it was 
Of the three first that came, who changed not: tho’ 
The other’s fate, Gaville! still dost rue. 


CANTO XXVI 


ARGUMENT.—Remounting by the steps, down which they have descended 
to the seventh gulf, they go forward to the arch that stretches over 
the eighth, and from thence behold numberless flames wherein are 
punished the evil counsellors, each flame containing a sinner, save 
one, in which were Diomede and Ulysses, the latter of whom relates 
the manner of his death. 


LORENCE, exult! for thou so mightily 
Hast thriven, that o’er land and sea thy wings 
Thou beatest, and thy name spreads over Hell. 
Among the plunderers, such the three I found 
Thy citizens; whence shame to me thy son, 
And no proud honor to thyself redounds. 
But if our minds, when dreaming near the dawn, 
Are of the truth presageful, thou ere long 
Shalt feel what Prato? (not to say the rest) 
Would fain might come upon thee; and that chance 
Were in good time, if it befell thee now. 
Would so it were, since it must needs befall ! 
For as time wears me, I shall grieve the more. 
We from the depth departed; and my guide 
Remounting scaled the flinty steps, which late 
We downward traced, and drew me up the steep. 


1“ Shalt feel what Prato.”” The Poet 


I utc 4 resentation of hell and the infernal tor- 
prognosticates the calamities which were i 


ments, in consequence of which accident 


soon to befall his native city, and which, 
he says, even her nearest neighbor, Pra- 
to, would wish her. The _ calamities 
more particularly pointed at are said to 
be the fall of a wooden bridge over the 
Arno, in May, 1304, where a large multi- 
tude were assembled to witness a rep- 


many lives were lost; and a conflagra- 
tion, that in the following month de. 
stroyed more than 1,700 houses, many 
of them sumptuous buildings. See G, 
Nana, ** Hist.” lib. viii. ¢. Ixx. and 
Xxi. 


HELL ; 105. 


Pursuing thus our solitary way 
Among the crags and splinters of the rock, 
Sped not our feet without the help of hands. 

Then sorrow seized me, which e’en now revives, 
As my thought turns again to what I saw, 
And, more than I am wont, I rein and curb 
The powers of nature in me, lest they run 
Where Virtue guides not; that, if aught of good 
My gentle star or something better gave me, 
I envy not myself the precious boon. 

As in that season, when the sun least veils 
His face that lightens all, what time the fly 
Gives way to the shrill gnat, the peasant then, 
Upon some cliff reclined, beneath him sees 
Fire-flies innumerous spangling o’er the vale, 
Vineyard or tilth, where his day-labor lies; 
With flames so numberless throughout its space 
Shone the eighth chasm, apparent, when the depth 
Was to my view exposed. As he, whose wrongs 
The bears avenged, as its departure saw 
Elijah’s chariot, when the steeds erect 
Raised their steep flight for heaven; his eyes meanwhile, 
Straining pursued them, till the flame alone, 
Upsoaring like a misty speck, he kenn’d: 
E’en thus along the gulf moves every flame, 
A sinner so enfolded close in each, 
That none exhibits token of the theft. 

Upon the bridge I forward bent to look, 
And grasp’d a flinty mass, or else had fallen, 
Though push’d not from the height. The guide, who mark’d 
How I did gaze attentive, thus began: 
“Within these ardors are the spirits, each 
Swathed in confining fire.” “ Master! thy word,” 
I answer’d, “hath assured me; yet I deem’d 
Already of the truth, already wish’d 
To ask thee who is in yon fire, that comes 
So parted at the summit, as it seem’d 
Ascending from that funeral pile? where lay 
2“ Ascending from that funeral pile.” of Eteocles and Polynices, as if cone 


The flame is said to have divided on the _ scious of the enmity that actuated them 
funeral p#le which consumed the bodies while living. , 


106 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The Theban brothers.” He replied: “ Within, 
Ulysses there and Diomede endure 
Their penal tortures, thus to vengeance now 
Together hasting, as erewhile to wrath 
These in the flame with ceaseless groans deplore 
The ambush of the horse,’ that open’d wide 
A portal for the goodly seed to pass, 
Which sow’d imperial Rome; nor less the guile 
Lament they, whence, of her Achilles ’reft, 
Deidamia yet in death complains. 
And there is rued the stratagem that Troy 
Of her Palladium spoil’d.”—‘ If they have power 
Of utterance from within these sparks,” said I, 
“O master! think my prayer a thousand-fold 
In repetition urged, that thou vouchsafe 
To pause till here the horned flame arrive. 
See, how toward it with desires I bend.” 
He thus: “ Thy prayer is worthy of much praise, 
And I accept it therefore; but do thou 
Thy tongue refrain: to question them be mine; 
For I divine thy wish; and they perchance, 
For they were Greeks,* might shun discourse with thee.” 
When there the flame had come, where time and place 
Seem’d fitting to my guide, he thus began: 
“O ye, who dwell two spirits in one fire! 
If, living, I of you did merit aught, 
Whate’er the measure were of that desert, 
When in the world my lofty strain I pour’d, 
Move ye not on, till one of you unfold 
In what clime death o’ertook him self-destroy’d.” 
Of the old flame forthwith the greater horn 
Began to roll, murmuring, as a fire 
That labors with the wind, then to and fro 
Wagging the top, as a tongue uttering sounds, 
Threw out its voice, and spake: “ When I escaped 
From Circe, who beyond a circling year’ 
Had held me near Caieta by her charms, 


at 


8“* The ambush of the horse.”’ ‘‘ The descendants founded the Roman Em- 

ambush of the wooden horse that pire.” . 

caused Aineas to quit the city of Troy 4“ For they were Greeks.’”? By this it 

and seek his fortune in Italy, where his is perhaps implied that they were haughe 
ty and arrogant. 


HELL 107 


Ere thus A®neas yet had named the shore; 

Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence 

Of my old father, nor return of love, 

That should have crown’d Penelope with joy, 

Could overcome in me the zeal I had 

To explore the world, and search the ways of life, 

Man’s evil and his virtue. Forth I sail’d 

Into the deep illimitable main, 

With but one bark, and the small faithful band 

That yet cleaved to me. As Iberia far, 

Far as Marocco, either shore I saw, 

And the Sardinian and each isle beside 

Which round that ocean bathes. Tardy with age 

Were I and my companions, when we came 

To the strait pass,> where Hercules ordain’d . 

The boundaries not to be o’erstepp’d by man. 

The walls of Seville to my right I left, 

On the other hand already Ceuta past. 

‘O brothers!’ I began, ‘ who to the west 

Through perils without number now have reach’d; 

To this the short remaining watch, that yet 

Our senses have to wake, refuse not proof 

Of the unpeopled world, following the track 

Of Pheebus. Call to mind from whence ye sprang: 

Ye were not form’d to live the life of brutes, 

But virtue to pursue and knowledge high.’ 

With these few words I sharpen’d for the voyage 

The mind of my associates, that I then 

Could scarcely have withheld them. To the dawn 

Our poop we turn’d, and for the witless flight 

Made our oars wings, still gaining on the left. 

Each star of the other pole night now beheld, 

And ours so low, that from the ocean floor 

It rose not. Five times reillumed, as oft 

Vanish’d the light from underneath the moon, 

Since the deep way we enter’d, when from far 

Appear’d a mountain dim,® loftiest methought 
ro ee ion tee ceecerrial porate; eiene 


6“ A mountain dim.” The mountain Lombardo relates that “‘ it was separated 
of Purgatory.—Among the various opin- by a long space, either of sea or land, 


108 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Of all I e’er beheld. Joy seized us straight; 
But soon to mourning changed. From the new land 
A whirlwind sprung, and at her foremost side 


Did strike the vessel. 


Thrice it whirl’d her round 


With all the waves; the fourth time lifted up 
The poop, and sank the prow:so fate decreed: 
And over us the booming billow closed.” * 


CANTO XXVII 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet, treating of the same punishment as in the last 
Canto, relates that he turned toward a flame in which was the 
fount Guido da Montefeltro, whose inquiries respecting the state 


of Romagna he answers; an 


uido is thereby induced to declare 


who he is, and why condemned to that torment. 


OW upward rose the flame, and still’d its light 
N To speak no more, and now pass’d on with leave 
From the mild poet gain’d; when following came 

Another, from whose top a sound confused, 
Forth issuing, drew our eyes that way to look. 

As the Sicilian bull,* that rightfully 
His cries first echoed who had shaped its mould, 
Did so rebellow, with the voice of him 
Torment’d, that the brazen monster seem’d 
Pierced through with pain; thus, while no way they found, 
Nor avenue immediate through the flame, 
Into its language turn’d the dismal words: 
But soon as they had won their passage forth, 
Up from the point, which vibrating obey’d 
Their motion at the tongue, these sounds were heard: 
“© thou! to whom I now direct my voice, 
That lately didst exclaim in Lombard phrasep 


from the regions inhabited by men, and 
placed in the ocean, reaching as far as 
to the lunar circle, so that the waters of 
the deluge did not reach it.’’—‘ Sent.” 
lib. ii. dist. 17. Thus Lombardi. 

7“ Closed.”’ Venturi refers to Pliny 
and Solinus for the opinion that Ulysses 
was the founder of Lisbon, from whence 
he thinks it was easy for the fancy of a 
poet to send him on yet further enter- 
prises. Perhaps the story (which it is 
not unlikely that our author will be 


found to have borrowed from some lfe- 
gend of the Middle Ages) may have 
taken its rise partly from the obscure 
oracle returned by the ghost of Tiresias 
to Ulysses (see the eleventh book of 
the ‘‘ Odyssey ”), and partly from the 
fate which there was reason to suppose 
had befallen some adventurous explor- 
ers of the Atlantic Ocean. 

1“ The Sicilian bull.”” The engine 
of torture invented by Perillus, for the 
tyrant Phalaris. 


HELL 


109 


‘Depart thou; I solicit thee no more;’ 
Though somewhat tardy I perchance arrive, 
Let it not irk thee here to pause awhile, 

And with me parley: lo! it irks not me, 


And yet I burn. 


lf but e’en now thou fall 


Into this blind world, from that pleasant land ° 
Of Latium, whence I draw my sum of guilt, 
Tell me if those who in Romagna dwell 


Have peace or war. 


For of the mountains there? | 


Was I, betwixt Urbino and the height 

Whence Tiber first unlocks his mighty flood.” 
Leaning I listen’d yet with heedful ear, 

When, as he touch’d my side, the leader thus: 


“ Speak thou: he is a Latian.” 


My reply 


Was ready, and I spake without delay: 
“© spirit! who art hidden here below, 
Never was thy Romagna without war 

In her proud tyrants’ bosoms, nor is now: 


But open war there left I none. 


The state, 


Ravenna hath maintain’d this many a year, 


Is steadfast. 


There Polenta’s eagle ® broods; 


And in his broad circumference of plume 


O’ershadows Cervia. 


The green talons grasp 


The land,* that stood erewhile the proof so long 
And piled in bloody heap the host of France. 
“The old mastiff of Verruchio and the young,® 
That tore Montagna ® in their wrath, still make, 
Where they are wont, an auger of their fangs. 


%‘* Of the mountains there.” Monte- 
feltro. 

8 ** Polenta’s eagle.”? Guido Novello da 
Polenta, who bore an eagle for his coat- 
of-arms. The name of Polenta was de- 
rived from a castle so called in the 
neighborhood of Brittonoro. Cervia is 
a small maritime city, about fifteen miles 
tu the south of Ravenna. Guido was the 
son of Ostasio da Polenta, and made 
himself master of Ravenna in 1265. In 
1322 he was deprived of his sovereignty, 
and died at Bologna in the year follow- 
ing. This last and most munificent pa- 
tron of Dante is himself enumerated, by 
the historian of Italian literature, among 
the poets of his time. 

«The land.” The territory of Forli, 
the inhabitants of which, in 1282, were 
enabled, by the stratagem of Guido da 
Montefeltro, who then governed it, to 


Classics. Vol. 34—F 


defeat with great slaughter the French 
army by which it had been besieged. 
See G. Villani, lib. vii. c. Ixxxi. he 
Poet informs Guido, its former ruler, 
that it is now in the possession of Sini- 
baldo Ordolaffi, or Ardelaffi, whom he 
designates by his coat-of-arms, a lion 


vert. 

5“ The old mastiff of Verruchio and 
the young.” Malatesta and Malatestino 
his son, lords of Rimini, called, from 
their ferocity, the mastiffs of Verruchio, 
which was the name of their castle. 
Malatestino was, perhaps, the husband 
of Francesca, daughter of Guido da Po- 
lenta. See notes to Canto v. 113. , 

6 ‘* Montagna.’”’ Montagna de’ Parct- 
tati, a noble knight and leader of the 
Ghibelline party at Rimini, murdered by 
Malatestino. 


1106 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Lamone’s city, and Santerno’s,’ range 
Under the lion of the snowy lair,® 
Inconstant partisan, that changeth sides, 
Or ever summer yields to winter’s frost. 
And she, whose flank is wash’d of Savio’s wave,® 


As ’twixt the level and the steep she lies, 
Lives so ’twixt tyrant power and liberty. 


“ Now tell us, I entreat thee, who art thou: 


Be not more hard than others. 


In the world, 


So may thy name still rear its forehead high.” 
Then roar’d awhile the fire, its sharpen’d point 

On either side waved, and thus breathed at last: 

“Tf I did think my answer were to one 

Who ever could return unto the world, 


This flame should rest unshaken. 


But since ne’er, 


If true be told me, any from this depth 
Has found his upward way, I answer thee, 
Nor fear lest infamy record the words. 

“ A man of arms ’*® at first, I clothed me, then 
In good Saint Francis’ girdle, hoping so 


To have made amends. 


And certainly my hope 


Had fail’d not, but that he, whom curses light on, 
The high priest, again seduced me into sin. 
And how, and wherefore, listen while I tell. 
Long as this spirit moved the bones and pulp 

My mother gave me, less my deeds bespake 
The nature of the lion than the fox. 

All ways of winding subtlety I knew, 

And with such art conducted, that the sound 


Reach’d the world’s limit. 


Soon as to that part 


Of life I found me come, and when each behoves 
To lower sails and gather in the lines; 

That, which before had pleased me, then I rued, 
And to repentance and confession turn’d, 
Wretch that I was; and well it had bested me. 


7“ QLamone’s city and Santerno’s.” 
Lamone is the river at Faenza, and San- 
terno at Imola. 

8“ The lion of the snowy lair.”” Ma- 
chinardo Pagano, whose arms were a 
lion azure on a field argent; mentioned 
again in the ‘‘ Purgatory,” Canto xiv. 
122. See G. Villani passim, where he is 
called Machinardo da Susinanae _ 


® “Whose flank is wash’d of Savio’s 
wave.”’ Cesena, situated at the foot of a 
mountain, and washed by tke river Sa- 
vio, that often descends with a swollen 
and rapid stream from the Apennines. 

10 “ A man of arms.” Guido da Mon- 
tefeltro. i. ; 

11“ The high-priest.”” Boniface VIII. 


HELL ce 


The chief of the new Pharisees ?? meantime, 
Waging his warfare near the Lateran, 
Not with the Saracens or Jews (his foes 
All Christians were, nor against Acre one 
Had fought,’ nor traffick’d in the Soldan’s land), 
He, his great charge nor sacred ministry, 
In himself reverenced, nor in me that cord 
Which used to mark with leanness whom it girded. 
As in Soracte, Constantine besought, 
To cure his leprosy, Sylvester’s aid; 
So me, to cure the fever of his pride, 
This man besought: my counsel to that end 
He ask’d; and I was silent; for his words 
Seem’d drunken: but forthwith he thus resumed: 
“From thy heart banish fear: of all offence 
I hitherto absolve thee. In return, 
Teach me my purpose so to execute, 
That Penestrino cumber earth no more. 
Heaven, as thou knowest, I have power to shut 
And open: and the keys are therefore twain, 
The which my predecessor ** meanly prized.’ 

“Then, yielding to the forceful arguments, 
Of silence as more perilous I deem’d, 
And answer’d: ‘Father! since thou washest me 
Clear of that guilt wherein I now must fall, 
Large promise with performance scant, be sure, 
Shall make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.’ 

“ When I was number’d with the dead, then came 
Saint Francis for me; but a cherub dark 
He met, who cried, ‘ Wrong me not; he is mine, 
And must below to join the wretched crew, 
For the deceitful counsel which he gave. 
E’er since I watch’d him, hovering at his hair. 


12“ The chief of the new Pharisees.” 
Boniface VIII, whose enmity to the 
family of Colonna prompted him to de- 
Stroy their houses near the Lateran. 
Wishing to obtain possession of their 
other seat, Penestrino, he consulted with 
Guido da Montefeltro how he might ac- 
complish his purpose, offering Bae at 
the same time absolution for his past 
sins, as well as for that whieh he was 
then tempting him to commit. Guido’s 
advice was that kind words and fair 
promises would put his enemies into his 


power; and they accordingly soon after- 
ward fell into the snare laid for them, 
A.D. 1298. 


66 


Nor against Acre one 
Had fought.”’ cen 

He alludes to the renegade Christians, 
by whom the Saracens, in April, aie 
were assisted to recover St. John 
d’Acre, the last possession of the Chris- 
tians in the Holy Land. : 

14 My predecessor.” Celestine V. 
See notes to Canto iii. 


Ii2 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


No power can the impenitent absolve; 

Nor to repent, and will, at once consist, 

By contradiction absolute forbid.’ 

Oh misery! how I shook myself, when he 
Seized me, and cried, ‘Thou haply thought’st me not 
A disputant in logic so exact!’ 

To Minos down he bore me; and the judge 
Twined eight times round his callous back the tail, 
Which biting with excess of rage, he spake: 
‘This is a guilty soul, that in the fire 

Must vanish.” Hence, perdition-doom’d, I rove 
A prey to rankling sorrow, in this garb.” 


When he had thus fulfil’d his words, the flame 


In dolor parted, beating to and fro, 

And writhing its sharp horn. We onward went, | 
I and my leader, up along the rock, F 
Far as another arch, that overhangs 

The foss, wherein the penalty is paid 

Of those who load them with committed sin. . 


CANTO XXVIII 


ARGUMENT.—They arrive in the ninth gulf, where the sowers of scandal, 


schismatics, and heretics, are seen with their limbs miserably 
maimed or divided in different ways. Among these the Poet finds 
Mohammed, Piero da Medicina, Curia, Mosca, and Bertrand de 
Born. 


HO, e’en in words unfetter’d, might at full 
Tell of the wounds and blood that now I saw, 
Though he repeated oft the tale? No tongue 


So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought 
Both impotent alike. If in one band 

Collected, stood the people all, who e’er 

Pour’d on Apulia’s happy soil their blood, 
Slain by the Trojans, and in that long war, 
When of the rings the measured booty made 

A pile so high, as Rome’s historian writes 

Who errs not; with the multitude, that felt 

The grinding force of Guiscard’s Norman steel,* 


1“ Guiscard’s Norman steel.” Robert of Naples, and died in 1110. He is imtro- 
Guiscard, who conquered the kingdom duced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. 


HELL 113 


And those the rest,? whose bones are gather’d yet 

At Ceperano, there where treachery 

Branded the Apulian name, or where beyond 

Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo,? without arms 

The old Alardo conquer’d; and his limbs 

One were to show transpierced, another his 

Clean lopt away; a spectacle like this 

Were but a thing of naught, to the hideous sight 

Of the ninth chasm. A rundlet, that hath lost 

Its middle or side stave, gapes not so wide 

As one I mark’d, torn from the chin throughout 

Down to the hinder passage: ’twixt the legs 

Dangling his entrails hung, the midriff lay 

Open to view, and wretched ventricle, 

That turns the englutted aliment to dross. 

Whilst eagerly I fix on him my gaze, 

He eyed me, with his hands laid his breast bare, 

And cried, “Now mark how I do rip me: lo! 

How is Mohammed mangled: before me 

Walks Ali* weeping, from the chin his face 

Cleft to the forelock; and the others all, 

Whom here thou seest, while they lived, did sow 

Scandal and schism, and therefore thus are rent. 

A fiend is here behind, who with his sword 

Hacks us thus cruelly, slivering again 

Each of this ream, when we have compast round 

The dismal way; for first our gashes close 

Ere we repass before him. But, say who 

Art thou, that standest musing on the rock, 

Haply so lingering to delay the pain 

Sentenced upon thy crimes.” “‘ Him death not yet,” 

My guide rejoin’d, “hath overta’en, nor sin 

Conducts to torment; but, that he may make 

Full trial of your state, I who am dead 

Must through the depths of Hell, from orb to orb, 

Conduct him. Trust my words; for they are true.” 

2“ And those the rest.”” The army of 3“ © Tagliacozzo.” He alludes to_the 
Manfredi, which, through the treachery victory which Charles gained over Con- 
of the Apulian troops, was overcome by radino, by the sage advice of the Sieur 
Charles of Anjou in 1265, and fell in de Valeri, in_ 1268. | 
such numbers that the bones of the slain 4* Ali,” The disciple of Mohammed. 


were still gathered near Ceperano. See 
the Purgatory, Canto iii. 


114 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard, 
Stood in the foss to mark me through amaze 


Forgetful of their pangs. 


“Thou, who perchance 


Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou 
Bear to Dolcino:® bid him, if he wish not 
Here soon to follow me, that with good store 

Of food he arm him, lest imprisoning snows 
Yield him a victim to Novara’s power; 

No easy conquest else: with foot upraised 
For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground 
Then fix’d it to depart. Another shade, 
Pierced in the throat, his nostrils mutilate 
E’en from beneath the eyebrows, and one ear — 
Lopt off, who, with the rest, through wonder stood 
Gazing, before the rest advanced, and bared 
His wind-pipe, that without was all o’ersmear’d 


With crimson stain. 


“O thou!” said he, “ whom sin 


Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near 
Resemblance to deceive me) I aloft 
Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind 


Piero of Medicina,® if again 


Returning, thou behold’st the pleasant land * 
That from Vercelli slopes to Mercabo; 

And there instruct the twain,? whom Fano boasts 
Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo, 

That if ’tis given us here to scan aright 

The future, they out of life’s tenement 

Shall be cast forth, and whelm’d under the waves 


5“ Dolcino.” In 1305, a friar, called 
Dolcino, who belonged to no regular 
order, contrived to raise in Novara, in 
Lombardy, a_ large si feel ahd of the 
meaner sort of people, declaring himself 
to be a true apostle of Christ, and 
promulgating a community of property 
and of wives, with many other such her- 
etical doctrines. He blamed the Pope, 
cardinals, and other prelates of the holy 
church, for not observing their duty, nor 
leading the angelic life, and afhrmed 
that he ought to be pope. He was fol- 
lowed by more than three thousand men 
and women, who lived promiscuously 
on the mountains together, like beasts, 
and, when they wanted provisions, sup- 
plied themselves by depredation and 
rapine. This lasted for two years, till 
many, being struck with compunction 
at the dissolute life they led, his sect 
was much diminished; and, through fail- 


ure of food and the severity of the 
snows, he was taken by the people of 
Novara, and burnt, with Margarita, his 
companion, and many other men and 
women whom his errors had seduced. 
8“ Medicina.” A place in the terri- 
tory. of Bologna. Piero fomented dis- 
sensions among the inhabitants of that 
city, and among the leaders of the neigh- 
boring States. 
7“ The pleasant land.”? Lombardy. 
8“ The twain.” Guido del Cassero 
and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of the 
worthiest and most distinguished citi- 
zens of Fano, were invited by Malates- 
tino da Rimini to an entertainment, on 
daa ae that he had some important 
usiness to transact with them; and, 
according to instructions given by him, 
they were drowned in their passage near 
Cattolica, between Rimini and Fano. 


HELL 


115 


Near to Cattolica, through perfidy 


Of a fell tyrant. 


*Twixt the Cyprian isle 


And Balearic, ne’er hath Neptune seen 

An injury so foul, by pirates done, 

Or Argive crew of old. That one-eyed traitor 
(Whose realm there is a spirit here were fain 
His eye had still lack’d sight of) them shall bring 
To conference with him, then so shape his end, 
That they shall need not ’gainst Focara’s wind ° 


Offer up vow nor prayer.” 


I answering thus: 


“ Declare, as thou dost wish that I above 

May carry tidings of thee, who is he, 

In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance.” 
Forthwith he laid his hand on the cheek-bone 

Of one, his fellow-spirit, and his jaws 


Expanding, cried: “Lo! 


this is he I wot of: 


He speaks not for himself: the outcast this, 
Who overwhelm’d the doubt in Czsar’s mind,?° 
Affirming that delay to men prepared 


Oh! 


Was ever harmful.” 


how terrified 


Methought was Curio, from whose throat was cut 
The tongue, which spake that hardy word. Then one, 
Maim’d of each hand, uplifted in the gloom 

The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots 


Sullied his face, and cried: 


“Remember thee 


Of Mosca ™ too; I who, alas! exclaim’d, 
‘The deed once done, there is an end’ that proved 
A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race.” 


I added: 


“Ay, and death to thine own tribe.” 


Whence, heaping woe on woe, he hurried off, 


As one grief-stung to madness. 


®“ Focara’s wind.” Focara is a moun- 
tain, from which a wind blows that is 
peculiarly dangerous to the navigators 
of that coast. 

10 The doubt in Cesar’s mind.” Cu- 
rio, whose speech (according to Lucan) 
determined Julius Czsar to proceed 
when he had arrived at Rimini (the an- 
cient Ariminum), and doubted whether 
he should prosecute the civil war. 

11 “* Mosca.” Buondelmonte was en- 
gaged to marry a lady of the Amidei 
amily, but broke his promise, and 
united himself to one of the Donati. 
This was so much resented by the for- 
mer, that a meeting of themselves and 


But I there 


their kinsmen was held, to consider of 
the best means of revenging the insult. 
Mosca degli Uberti, or de’ Lamberti, 
persuaded them to resolve on the ase 
sassination of Buondelmonte, exclaime 
ing to them, “the thing once done, 
there is an end.” This counsel and its 
effects were the source of many terri 
ble calamities to the State of Florence. 
“This murder,” says G. Villani, lib. v. 
cap. xxxviii., “yas the cause and be- 
ginnirg of the accursed Guelf and 
Ghibelline parties in Florence.” It 
happened in 1215. See the “ Paradise,” 
Canto xvi. 139. 


116 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Still linger’d to behold the troop, and saw 

Thing, such as I may fear without more proof 

To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm, 

The boon companion, who her strong breastplate 

Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within, 

And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt 

I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me, 

A headless trunk, that even as the rest 

Of the sad flock paced onward. By the hair 

It bore the sever’d member, lantern-wise 

Pendent in hand, which look’d at us, and said, 

“Woe’s me!” The spirit lighted thus himself; 

And two there were in one, and one in two. 

How that may be, he knows who ordereth so. 
When at the bridge’s foot direct he stood, 

His arm aloft he rear’d, thrusting the head 

Full in our view, that nearer we might hear 

The words, which thus it utter’d: ‘“ Now behold 

This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go’st 

To spy the dead: behold, if any else 

Be terrible as this. And, that on earth 

Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I 

Am Bertrand,}* he of Born, who gave King John 

The counsel mischievous. Father and son 

I set at mutual war. For Absalom 

And David more did not Ahitophel, 

Spurring them on maliciously to strife. 

For parting those so closely knit, my brain 

Parted, alas! I carry from its source. 

That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law 

Of retribution fiercely works in me.” 

12 ** Bertrand.” Bertrand de Born, against his father, Henry II of Eng: 


Vicomte de Hautefort, near Perigueux land. Bertrand holds a distinguished 
in Guienne, who incited John to rebel place among the Provengal poets. 


HELL Ily 


CANTO XXIX 


ARGUMENT.—Dante, at the desire of Virgil, proceeds onward to the 
bridge that crosses the tenth gulf, from whence he hears the cries 
of the alchemists and forgers, who are tormented therein; but not 
being able to discern anything on account of the darkness, they 
descend the rock, that bounds this, the last of the compartments in 
which the eighth circle is divided, and then behold the spirits who 
are afflicted by divers plagues and diseases. Two of them, namely, 
Grifolino of Arezzo, and Capocchio of Sienna, are introduced 
speaking. 


O were mine eyes inebriate with the view 
Of the vast multitude, whom various wounds 
Disfigured, that they long’d to stay and weep. 

But Virgil roused me: “ What yet gazest on? 
Wherefore doth fasten yet thy sight below 
Among the maim’d and miserable shades? 
Thou hast not shown in any chasm beside 
This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them, 
That two and twenty miles the valley winds 
Its circuit, and already is the moon 
Beneath our feet: the time permitted now 
Is short; and more, not seen, remains to see.” 

“Tf thou,” I straight replied, “ hadst weigh’d the cause, 
For which I look’d, thou hadst perchance excused 
The tarrying still.” My leader part pursued 
His way, the while I follow’d, answering him, 
And adding thus: “ Within that cave I deem, 
Whereon so fixedly I held my ken, 
There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood, 
Wailing the crime that costs him now so dear.” 

Then spake my master: “ Let thy soul no more 
Afflict itself for him. Direct elsewhere 
Its thought, and leave him. At the bridge’s foot 
I mark’d how he did point with menacing look 
At thee, and heard him by the others named 
Geri of Bello.1. Thou so wholly then 


1 “* Geri of Bello.” A kinsman of the ment of his punishments than has gene 
Poet’s, who was murdered by one of seally been supposed. He was the son 
the Sacchetti family. His being placed of Bello, who was brother to Bellin- 
here, may be considered as a proof that cione, our Poet’s grandfather. 

Dante was more impartial in the allot- 


118 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Wert busied with his spirit, who once ruled 

The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not 
That way, ere he was gone.” “QO guide beloved! 
His violent death yet unavenged,” said I, 

“By any, who are partners in his shame, 

Made him contemptuous; therefore, as I think, 
He pass’d me speechless by; and, doing so, 

Hath made me more compassionate his fate.” 

So we discoursed to where the rock first show’d 
The other valley, had more light been there, 
E’en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came 
O’er the last cloister in the dismal rounds 
Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood 
Were to our view exposed, then many a dart 
Of sore lament assail’d me, headed all 
With points of thrilling pity, that I closed 
Both ears against the volley with mine hands, 

As were the torment, if each lazar-house 
Of Valdichiana,? in the sultry time 
*Twixt July and September, with the isle 
Sardinia and Maremma’s pestilent fen,® 
Had heap’d their maladies all in one foss 
Together; such was here the torment: dire 
The stench, as issuing streams from fester’d limbs. 

We on the utmost shore of the long rock 
Descended still to leftward. Then my sight 
Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein 
The minister of the most mighty Lord, 
All-searching Justice, dooms to punishment 
The forgers noted on her dread record. 

More rueful was it not methinks to see 
The nation in A°gina* droop, what time 
Each living thing, e’en to the little worm, 

All fell, so full of malice was the air, 
(And afterward, as bards of yore have told, 


2“ Of Valdichiana.” The valley is mentioned as a remarkably sluggish 


through which passes the river Chiana, stream, in the Paradise, Canto xiii. 21. 
bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Monte- 8** Maremma’s pestilent fen.”” See 
pulciano, and Chiusi. In the heat of note to Canto xxv. v, 18. 

autumn it was formerly rendered un- “In /Egina.” He alludes to the 


wholesome by the stagnation of the fable of the ants changed into Myrmi- 
water, but has since been drained by dons.—Ovid, “ Met.” 1b. Vii. 
the Emperor Leopold II. The Chiana 


HELL 119 


The ancient people were restored anew 

From seed of emmets), than was here to see 

The spirits, that languish’d through the murky vale, 
Up-piled on many a stack. Confused they lay, 
One o’er the belly, o’er the shoulders one 

Roll’d of another; sideling crawl’d a third 

Along the dismal pathway. Step by step 

We journey’d on, in silence looking round, 

And listening those diseased, who strove im vain 
To lift their forms. Then two I mark’d, that sat 
Propt ’gainst each other, as two: brazen pans 

Set to retain the heat. From head to foot, 

A tetter bark’d them round. Nor saw I e’er 
Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord 
Impatient waited, or himself perchance 

Tired with long watching, as of these each one 
Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness 
Of ne’er abated pruriency. The crust 

Came drawn from underneath, in flakes, like scales 
Scraped from the bream, or fish of broader: mail. 

“O thou! who with thy fingers: rendest off 
Thy coat of proof,” thus spake my guide to one, 
“And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them, 
Tell me if any born of Latian land 
Be among these within: so may thy nails 
Serve thee for everlasting to this toil.” 

“Both are of Latium,” weeping he replied, 
“Whom ‘tortured thus thou seest: but who art thou 
That hast inquired of us?” To whom my guide: 
“One that descend with this man, who yet lives, 
From rock to rock, and show him Hell’s abyss.” 

Then started they asunder, and each turn’d 
Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear 
Those words redounding struck. To me my liege 
Address’d him: “ Speak to them whate’er thou list.” 

And I therewith began: “So may no. time 
Filch your remembrance from the thoughts: of men 
In the upper world, but after many suns 
‘Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are, 

And of what race ye come. Your punishment, 


120 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Unseemly and disgustful in its kind, 
Deter you not from opening thus much to me.” 
“ Arezzo was my dwelling,” > answer’d one, 
“ And me Albero of Sienna brought 
To die by fire: but that, for which I died, 
Leads me not here. True is, in sport I told him, 
That I had learn’d to wing my flight in air; 
And he, admiring much, as he was void 
Of wisdom, will’d me to declare to him 
The secret of mine art: and only hence, 
Because I made him not a Deedalus, 
Prevail’d on one supposed his sire to burn me. 
But Minos to this chasm, last of the ten, 
For that I practised alchemy on earth, 
Has doom’d me. Him no subterfuge eludes.” 
Then to the bard I spake: “ Was ever race 
Light as Sienna’s?® Sure not France herself 
Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain.” 
The other leprous spirit heard my words, 
And thus return’d: “Be Stricca’™ from this charge 
Exempted, he who knew so temperately 
To lay out fortune’s gifts; and Niccolo, 
Who first the spice’s costly luxury 
Discover’d in that garden,® where such seed 
Roots deepest in the soil: and be that troop 
Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano 
Lavish’d his vineyards and wide-spreading woods, 
And his rare wisdom Abbagliato show’d 
A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know 
Who seconds thee against the Siennese 
Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen’d sight, 
That well my face may answer to thy ken; 
So shalt thou see I am Capocchio’s ghost, 


6 ** Arezzo was my dwelling.” Grifo- Stricca, Niccolo Salimbeni, Caccia of 


lino of Arezzo, who Prana Albero, Asciano, and Abbagliato or 
son of the Bishop of Sienna, that he Folcacchieri belonged to a company 
would teach him the art of flying; and, of prodigal and luxurious young men in 
because he did not keep his promise, Sienna, called the ‘‘ Brigata Goderec- 
Albero prevailed on his father to have cia.”” Niccolo was the inventor of a 
him burnt for a necromancer. mew manner of using cloves in cook- 
6 BS Was ever race ery, not very well understood by the 
Light as Sienna’s? ” commentators, and which was termed 


The same imputation is again cast on the ‘‘ costuma ricca.”’ : 
the Siennese, Purg. Canto xiii. 141. 8“ In that garden.” Sienna. 
%** Stricca.’”?’ This is said ironically, 


a) HEEL 121 


Who forged transmuted metals by the power 
Of alchemy; and if I scan thee right, 

Thou needs must well remember how I aped 
Creative nature by my subtle art.” 


CANTO XXX 


ARGUMENT.—In the same gulf, other kinds of impostors, as those who 
have counterfeited the persons of others, or debased the current 
coin, or deceived by speech under false pretences, are described as 
suffering various diseases. Sinon of Troy and Adamo of Brescia 
mutually reproach each other with their several impostures, 


HAT time resentment burn’d in Juno’s breast 

For Semele against the Theban blood, 

As more than once in dire mischance was rued; 
Such fatal frenzy seized on Athamas, . 
That he his spouse beholding with a babe 
Laden on either arm, “Spread out,” he cried, 
“The meshes, that I take the lioness 
And the young lions at the pass:” then forth 
Stretch’d he his merciless talons, grasping one, 
One helpless innocent, Learchus named, 
Whom swinging down he dash’d upon a rock; 
And with her other burden, self-destroy’d, 
The hapless mother plunged. And when the pride 
Of all presuming Troy fell from its height, 
By fortune overwhelm’d, and the old king 
With his realm perish’d; then did Hecuba, 
A wretch forlorn and captive, when she saw 
Polyxena first slaughter’d, and her son, 
Her Polydorus, on the wild sea-beach 
Next met the mourner’s view, then reft of sense 
Did she run barking even as a dog; 
Such mighty power had grief to wrench her soul, 
But ne’er the Furies, or of Thebes, or Troy, 
With such fell cruelty were seen, their goads 
Infixing in the limbs of man or beast, 
As now two pale and naked ghosts I saw, 
That gnarling wildly scamper’d, like the swine 


122 


Excluded from his stye. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


One reach’d Capocchio, 


And in the neck-joint sticking deep his fangs, 
Dragg’d him, that, o’er the solid pavement rubb’d 


His belly stretch’d out prone. 


The other shape, 


He of Arezzo, there left trembling, spake: 
“That sprite of air is Schicchi,’ in like mood 
Of random mischief vents he still his spite.” 


To whom I answering: 


“Oh! as thou dost hope 


The other may not flesh its jaws on thee, 

Be patient to inform us, who it is, 

Ere it speed hence.” —“ That is the ancient soul 

Of wretched Myrrha,” he replied, “ who burn’d 

With most unholy flame for her own sire, 

And a false shape assuming, so perform’d 

The deed of sin; e’en as the other there, 

That onward passes, dared to counterfeit 

Donati’s features, to feign’d testament 

The seal affixing, that himself might gain, 

For his own share, the lady of the herd.” 
When vanish’d the two furious shades, on whom 

Mine eye was held, I turn’d it back to view 

The other cursed spirits. One I saw 

In fashion like a lute, had but the groin 

Been sever’d where it meets the forked part. 

Swoln dropsy, disproportioning the limbs 

With ill-converted moisture, that the paunch 

Suits not the visage, open’d wide his lips, 

Gasping as in the hectic man for drought, 

One toward the chin, the other upward curl’d. 
“© ye! who in this world of misery, 

Wherefore I know not, are exempt from pain,” 

Thus he began, “ attentively regard 


Adamo’s woe.? 


When living, full supply 


Ne’er lack’d me of what most I coveted; 


4** Schicchi.”” Gianni Schicchi, who 
was of the family of —avalcanti, pose 
sessed such a faculty of moulding his 
features to the resemblance of others, 
that he was employed by Simon Dona- 
ti to personate Buoso Donati, then re- 
cently deceased, and to make a will, 
Jeaving Simon his heir; for which ser- 
vice he was remunerated with a mare 
of extraordinary value, here called “ the 
lady of the herd.” 


2“ Adamo’s woe.” Adamo of Bres- 
cia, at the instigation of Guido, Alese 
sandro, and their brother Aghinulfo, 
Lords of Romena, counterfeited the 
coin of Florence; for which crime he 
was burnt. Landino says that in his 
time the peasants still pointed out a 
pile of stones near Romena, as the 
place of his execution. See Troya, 
*Veltro Allegorico,” p. 25. 


HELL | 123 


One drop of water now, alas! I crave. 
The rills, that glitter down the grassy slopes 
Of Casentino,? making fresh and soft 
The banks whereby they glide to Arno’s stream, 
Stand ever in my view; and not in vain; 
For more the pictured semblance dries me up, 
Much more than the disease, which makes the flesh 
Desert these shrivel’d cheeks. So from the place, 
Where I transgress’d, stern justice urging me, 
Takes means to quicken more my laboring sighs. 
There is Romena, where I falsified 
The metal with the Baptist’s form imprest, 
For which on earth I left my body burnt. 
But if I here might see the sorrowing soul 
Of Guido, Alessandro, or their brother, 
For Branda’s limpid spring * I would not change 
The welcome sight. One is e’en now within, 
If truly the mad spirits tell, that round 
Are wandering. But wherein besteads me that? 
My limbs are fetter’d. Were I but so light, 
That I each hundred years might move one inch, 
I had set forth already on this path, 
Seeking him out amidst the shapeless crew, 
Although eleven miles it wind, not less 
Than half of one across. They brought me down 
Among this tribe; induced by them, I stamp’d 
The florens with three carats of alloy.” ® 

“ Who are that abject pair,” I next inquired, 
“That closely bounding thee upon thy right 
Lie smoking, like a hand in winter steep’d 
In the chill stream?” ‘‘ When to this gulf I dropp’d,” 
He answer’d, “ here I found them; since that hour 
They have not turn’d, nor ever shall, I ween, 
Till time hath run his course. One is that dame, 
The false accuser *® of the Hebrew youth; 
Sinon the other, that false Greek from Troy. 


*“Casentino.” Romena is a_ part of pure gold. Villani relates that it 


of Casentino. was first used at Florence in 1252, an 
4** Branda’s limpid spring.” A foun- era of great prosperity in the annals of 

tain in Sienna. the republic; before which time their 
&’* The florens with three carats of most valuable coinage was of silver, 

alloy.” The floren was a coin that 6“ The false accuser.”  Potiphar’s 


ought to have had twenty-four carats wife. 


124 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Sharp fever drains the reeky moistness out, _ 
In such a cloud upsteam’d.” When that he heard, 
One, gall’d perchance to be so darkly named, 

With clench’d hand smote him on the braced paunch, 
That like a drum resounded: but forthwith 

Adamo smote him on the face, the blow 

Returning with his arm, that seem’d as hard. 

“Though my o’erweighty limbs have ta’en from me 
The power to move,” said he, “I have an arm 
At liberty for such employ.” To whom 
Was answer’d: “ When thou wentest to the fire, 
Thou hadst it not so ready at command, 

Then readier when it coin’d the impostor gold.” 

And thus the dropsied: “ Ay, now speak’st thou trues 
But there thou gavest not such true testimony, 
When thou wast question’d of the truth, at Troy.” 

“Tf I spake false, thou falsely stamp’dst the coin,” 
Said Sinon; “I am here for but one fault, 

And thou for more than any imp beside.” 

“Remember,” he replied, “O perjured one! 

The horse remember, that did teem with death; 
And all the world be witness to thy guilt.” 

“To thine,” return’d the Greek, “ witness the thirst 
Whence thy tongue cracks, witness the fluid mound 
Rear’d by the belly up before thine eyes, 

A mass corrupt.” To whom the coiner thus: 
“Thy mouth gapes wide as ever to let pass 

Its evil saying. Me if thirst assails, 

Yet I am stuft with moisture. Thou art parch’d: 
Pains rack thy head: no urging wouldst thou need 
To make thee lap Narcissus’ mirror up.” 

I was all fix’d to listen, when my guide 

Admonish’d: “ Now beware. A little more, 
And I do quarrel with thee.” I perceived 
How angrily he spake, and toward him turn’d 
With shame so poignant, as remember’d yet 
Confounds me. As a man that dreams of harm 
Befallen him, dreaming wishes it a dream, 

And that which is, desires as if it were not; . 
Such then was I, who, wanting power to speak, 


HELL 125 


Wish’d to excuse myself, and all the while 
Excused me, though unweeting that I did. 
“ More grievous fault than thine has been, less shame,” 
My master cried, “might expiate. Therefore cast 
All sorrow from thy soul; and if again 
Chance bring thee where like conference is held, 
Think I am ever at thy side. To hear 
Such wrangling is a joy for vulgar minds.” 


CANTO XXXI 


ArcuMENT.—The Poets, following the sound of a loud horn, are led by 
it to the ninth circle, in which there are four rounds, one enclosed 
within the other, and containing as many sorts of traitors; but the 
present Canto shows only that the circle is encompassed with giants, 
one of whom, Anteus, takes them both in his arms and places 
them at the bottom of the circle. 


“HE very tongue, whose keen reproof before 
Had wounded me, that either cheek was stain’d, 
Now minister’d my cure. So have I heard, 
Achilles’ and his father’s javelin caused 
Pain first, and then the boon of health restored. 
Turning our back upon the vale of woe, 
We cross’d the encircled mound in silence. There 
Was less than day and less than night, that far 
Mine eye advanced not: but I heard a horn 
Sounded, so loud, the peal it rang had made 
The thunder feeble. Following its course 
The adverse way, my strained eyes were bent 
On that one spot. So terrible a blast 
Orlando’ blew not, when that dismal rout 
O’erthrew the host of Charlemain, and quench’d 
His saintly warfare. Thitherward not long 
My head was raised, when many a lofty tower 
Methought I spied. “ Master,” said I, “ what land 


Beecitiando,”? i? 5. ‘ horn which Orlando won from the 
** When Charlemain with all his peerage giant Jatmund, and which, as Turpin 
fell and the Islandic bards report, was en- 
_At Fontarabia.” dued with magical power, and might 
Milton, ‘‘ Paradise Lost,” b. i. 586. be heard at the distance of twenty 
See Warton’s “ Hist. of Eng. Poetry,” miles.” Charlemain and Orlando are 


vol. i. sect. iii. p. 132. ‘“‘This is the introduced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. 


it is remarked by W rans 
Arabian vein of tabling. to the place where it now is, in the 


126 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Is this?” He answer’d straight: “Too long a space 
Of intervening darkness has thine eye 
To traverse: thou hast therefore widely err’d 
In thy imagining. Thither arrived 
Thou well shalt see, how distance can delude 
The sense. A little therefore urge thee on.” 
Then tenderly he caught me by the hand; 
“Yet know,” said he, “ere further we advance, 
That it less strange may seem, these are not towers, 
But giants. In the pit they stand immersed, 
Each from his navel downward, round the bank.” 
As when a fog disperseth gradually, 
Our vision traces what the mist involves 
Condensed in air; so piercing through the gross 
And gloomy atmosphere, as more and more 
We near’d toward the brink, mine error fled 
And fear came o’er me. As with circling round 
Of turrets, Montereggion? crowns his walls; 
E’en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss, 
Was turreted with giants,® half their length 
Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from heaven 
Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls. 
Of one already I descried the face, 
Shoulders, and breast, and of the belly huge 
Great part, and both arms down along his ribs. 
All-teeming Nature, when her plastic hand 
Left framing of these monsters, did display 
Past doubt her wisdom, taking from mad War 
Such slaves to do his bidding; and if she 
Repent her not of the elephant and whale, 
Who ponders well confesses her therein 
Wiser and more discreet; for when brute force 
And evil will are back’d with subtlety, 
Resistance none avails. His visage seem’d 
In length and bulk, as doth the pine * that tops 
3‘* Montereggion.” A castle near Si- belfry of St. Peter; and having (accord- 
enna. ing to Buti) been thrown down by 
8“ Giants.” The id round the pit, lightning, it was, after lying some time 
arton, are in the on the steps of this palace, transferred 


“The pine.” The large pine of Pope’s garden, by the side of the great 


bronze, which once ornamented the top corridor of Belvedere. In the time of 
of the mole of Adrian, was afterward our poet, the pine was then either on 
employed to decorate the top of the the belfry or on the steps of St. Peter’s. 


a 


HELL | 127 


Saint Peter’s Roman fane; and the other bones 
Of like proportion, so that from above 
The bank, which girdled him below, such height 


Arose his stature, that three 


Friezelanders 


Had striven in vain to reach but to his hair. 
Full thirty ample palms was he exposed 


Downward from whence a 


man his: garment loops. 


* Raphel® bai ameth, sabi almi:” 

So shouted his fierce lips, which sweeter hymns 
Became not; and my guide address’d him thus: 
“O senseless spirit! let thy horn for thee 
Interpret: therewith vent thy rage, if rage 


Or other passion wring thee. 


Search thy neck. 


There shalt thou find the belt that binds it on. 
Spirit confused! lo, on thy mighty breast 


Where hangs the baldrick!” 
“He doth accuse himself. 


Then to me he spake: 
Nimrod is this, 


Through whose ill counsel in the world no more 
One tongue prevails. But pass we on, nor waste 
Our words; for so each language is to him, 


As his to others, understood 


by none.” 


Then to the leftward turning sped we forth, 
And at a sling’s throw found another shade 


Far fiercer and more huge. 
What master hand had girt 


I cannot say 
him; but he held 


Behind the right arm fetter’d, and before, 

The other, with a chain, that fasten’d him 

From the neck down; and five times round his form 
Apparent met the wreathed links. ‘ This proud one 
Would of his strength against almighty Jove 


Make trial,” said my guide: 


“whence he is thus 


Requited: Ephialtes him they call. 

Great was his prowess, when the giants brought 
Fear on the gods: those arms, which then he plied, 
Now moves he never.” Forthwith I return’d: 
“Fain would I, if ’t were possible, mine eyes, 

Of Briareus immeasurable, gain’d 

Experience next.” He answered: “ Thou shalt see 


6“ Raphel, ete.” These unmeaning 
sounds, it is supposed, are meant to 


express the confusion of languages at 
the building of the tower of Babel. 


128 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Not far from hence Antzus, who both speaks 

And is unfetter’d, who shall place us there 

Where guilt is at its depth. Far onward stands 
Whom thou wouldst fain behold, in chains, and made 
Like to this spirit, save that in his looks 

More fell he seems.” By violent earthquake rock’d 
Ne’er shook a tower, so reeling to its base, 

As Ephialtes. More than ever then 

I dreaded death; nor than the terror more 

Had needed, if I had not seen the cords 

That held him fast. We, straightway journeying on, 
Came to Antzus, who, five ells complete 

Without the head, forth issued from the cave. 

“O thou, who in the fortunate vale,® that made 
Great Scipio heir of glory, when his sword | 
Drove back the troop of Hannibal in flight, 

Who thence of old didst carry for thy spoil 

An hundred lions; and if thou hadst fought 

In the high conflict on thy brethren’s side, 

Seems as men yet believed, that through thine arm 
The sons of earth had conquer’d; now vouchsafe 
To place us down beneath, where numbing cold 
Locks up Cocytus. Force not that we crave 

Or Tityus’ help or Typhon’s. Here is one 

Can give what in this realm ye covet. Stoop 
Therefore, nor scornfully distort thy lip. 

He in the upper world can yet bestow 

Renown on thee; for he doth live, and looks 

For life yet longer, if before the time 

Grace call him not unto herself.” Thus spake 
The teacher. He in haste forth stretch’d his hands 
And caught my guide. Alcides? whilom felt 
That grapple, straiten’d sore. Soon as my guide 
Had felt it, he bespake me thus: “ This way, 
That I may clasp thee;”’ then so caught me up, 
That we were both one burden. As appears 
The tower of Carisenda,® from beneath 


6 “* The fortunate vale.’”’ The country lib. ii. as a (phe of the judgment of 
near Carthage. God displayed in the duel, according to 
7“ Alcides.”” The combat between the singular superstition of those times. 


Hercules and Antzus is adduced by the 8“ The tower of Carisenda.” The 


poet in his treatise ‘‘ De Monarchia, leaning tower at Bologna, 


HELL 129 


Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud 
So sail across, that opposite it hangs; 

Such then Antzus seem’d, as at mine ease 

I mark’d him stooping. I were fain at times 
To have passed another way. Yet in the abyss, 
That Lucifer with Judas low ingulfs, 

Lightly he placed us; nor, there leaning, stay’d; 
But rose, as in a bark the stately mast. 


CANTO XXXII 


ARGUMENT.—This Canto treats of the first, and, in part, of the second 
of those rounds, into which the ninth and last, or frozen circle, is 
divided. In the former, called_Caina, Dante finds Camiccione de’ 
Pazzi, who gives him an account of other sinners who are there 
punished; and in the next, named Antenora, he hears in like man- 
ner from Bocca degli Abbati who his fellow-sufferers are. 


OULD I command rough rhymes and hoarse, to suit 
That hole of sorrow o’er which every rock 
His firm abutment rears, then might the vein 
Of fancy rise full springing: but not mine 
Such measures, and with faltering awe I touch 
The mighty theme; for to describe the depth 
Of all the universe, is no emprise 
To jest with, and demands a tongue not used 
To infant babbling. But let them assist 
My song, the tuneful maidens, by whose aid 
Amphion wall’d in Thebes; so with the truth 
My speech shall best accord.’ Oh ill-starr’d folk, 
Beyond all others wretched! who abide 
In such a mansion, as scarce thought finds words 
To speak of, better had ye here on earth 
Been flocks, or mountain goats. As down we stood 
In the dark pit beneath the giants’ feet, 
But lower far than they, and I did gaze 
Still on the lofty battlement, a voice 
Bespake me thus: “Look how thou walkest. Take 
Good heed, thy soles do tread not on the heads 
Of thy poor brethren.” Thereupon I turn’d, 


130 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And saw before and underneath my feet 


A lake,.whose—frozen surface liker seem’d 


To glass than water. 


Not so thick a veil 


In winter e’er hath Austrian Danube spread 
O’er his still course, nor Tanais far remote 
Under the chilling sky. MRoll’d o’er that mass 
Had Tabernich or Pietrapana? fallen, 
Not e’en its rim had creak’d. As peeps the frog 
Croaking above the wave, what time in dreams 
The village gleaner oft pursues her toil, 
So, to where modest shame appears, thus low 
Blue pinch’d and shrined in ice the spirits stood, 
Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork. 
His face each downward held; their mouth the cold, 
Their eyes express’d the dolor of their heart. 

A space I look’d around, then at my feet 
Saw two so strictly join’d, that of their head 


The very hairs were mingled. 


oh vel mesyve; 


~ 


Whose bosoms thus together press,” said I, 


“Who are ye?” 


At that sound their necks they bent; 


And when their looks were lifted up to me, — 
Straightway their eyes, before all moist within, 
Distill’d upon their lips, and the frost bound 

The tears betwixt those orbs, and held them there. 
Plank unto plank hath never cramp closed up 


So stoutly. 


Whence, like two enraged goats, 


uke two enraged g¢ 
They clash’d together: them such fury seized. 
nd one, from whom the cold both ears had reft, 


Exclaim’d, still looking downward: 
If thou wouldst know 


Dost speculate so long? 


“Why on us 


Who are these two,” the valley, whence his wave 

Bisenzio slopes, did for its master own 

Their sire Alberto, and next him themselves. 

They from one body issued: and throughout 
aina thou mayst search, nor find a shade 

More worthy in congealment to be fix’d; 


1**Tabernich or Pietrapana.”” The one 
a mountain in Sclavonia, the other in 
that tract of country called the Gar- 
fagnana, not far from Lucca. 
‘‘Who are these two.’”’ Alessandro 
and Napoleone, sons of Alberto Albe” 


ti, who murdered ch oth The 
we re) e ey of Fal. 
terona, where the Bisenzio has its 
source, a river that falls into the Arno 
about six miles from Florence. 


HELL 


131 


Not him,? whose breast and shadow Arthur’s hand 
At that one blow dissever’d; not Focaccia ;* 

No, not this spirit, whose o’erjutting head 
Obstructs my onward view: he bore the name 

Of Mascheroni:° Tuscan if thou be, 


Well knowest who he was. 


And to cut short 


All further question, in my form behold 


What once was: Camiccione.® 


I await 


Carlino? here my kinsman, whose deep guilt 


Shall wash out mine.” 


A thousand visages 


Then mark’d I, which the keen and eager cold 
Had shaped into a doggish grin; whence creeps 
A shivering horror o’er me, at the thought 


Of those frore shallows. 


While we journey’d on 


Toward the middle, at whose point unites 

All heavy substance, and I trembling went 

Through that eternal chillness, I know not 

If will it were, or destiny, or chance, 

But, passing ’midst the heads, my foot did strike 

With violent blow against the face of one. 
“Wherefore dost bruise me?” weeping he exclaim’d 

“Unless thy errand be some fresh revenge 

For Montaperto,* wherefore troublest me?” 


I: thus: 


“Instructor, now await me here, 


That I through him may rid me of my doubt: 


Thenceforth what haste thou wilt.” 


The teacher paused 


And to that shade I spake, who bitterly 


Still cursed me in his wrath. 
That railest thus on others?” 


“What art thou, speak, 
He replied: 


“Now who art thou, that smiting others’ cheeks, 


8‘“* Not him.” Mordrec, son of King 
Arthur. In the romance of ‘ Lance- 
lot of the Lake,” Arthur having discov- 
ered the traitorous intentions of his son 
agai him through with the stroke of 

is lance, so that the sunbeam passes 
through the body of Mordrec; and this 
disruption of the shadow is no doubt 
what our Poet alludes to in the text. . 

4 “Focaccia.” Focaccia of Cancellieri, 
(the Pistoian family), whose atrocious 
act of revenge against his uncle is said 
to have given rise to the parties of the 
Bianchi and Neri, in the year 1300. 

8“ Mascheroni.”’” Sassol Mascheroni, 
a Florentine, who also murdered his 
uncle. 

6“ Camiccione.”” Camiccione de’ Paz- 


zi of Valdarno, by whom his kinsman 
Ubertino was treacherously put to 
death. 

7* Carlino.” One of the same family. 
He betrayed the Castel di Piano Tra- 
vigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines 
after the refugees of the Bianca an 
Ghibelline party had defended it 
against a siege for twenty-nine days, in 


the summer of 1302. 

8“ Montaperto.” The defeat of the 
Gueilfi at ontaperto, occasioned by 
the treachery of Bocca degli Abbati, 
who, during the engagement, cut_off 
the hand of Giacopo del Vacca de’ Paz- 
zi, bearer of the Florentine standard. 
This event happened in 1260. 


2 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Through Antenora roamest, with such force 
As were past sufferance, wert thou living still?” 
“ And I am living, to thy joy perchance,” — 
Was my reply, “if fame be dear to thee, 
That with the rest I may thy name enroll.” 
“The contrary of what I covet most,” 
Said he, “ thou tender’st: hence! nor vex me more. 
Ill knowest thou to flatter in this vale.” 
Then seizing on his hinder scalp I cried: 
“Name thee, or not a hair shall tarry here.” 
“Rend all away,” he answer’d, “ yet for that 
I will not tell, nor show thee, who I am, 
Though at my head thou pluck a thousand times.” 
Now I had grasp’d his tresses, and stript off 
More than one tuft, he barking, with his eyes 
Drawn in and downward, when another cried, 
“What ails thee, Bocca? Sound not loud enough 
Thy chattering teeth, but thou must bark outright? 


What devil wrings thee? ”—‘‘ Now,” said I, “ be dumb, 


Accursed traitor! To thy shame, of thee 

True tidings will I bear.”—‘ Off!” he replied; 
“Tell what thou list: but, as thou ’scape from hence, 
To speak of him whose tongue hath been so glib, 
Forget not: here he wails the Frenchman’s gold. 


‘Him of Duera,’® thou canst say, “I mark’d, 


Where the starved sinners pine.’ 


If thou be ask’d 


What other shade was with them, at thy side 
Is Beccaria,’® whose red gorge distain’d 


The biting axe of Florence. 


Further on, 


If I misdeem not, Soldanieri™ bides, 
With Ganellon,!? and Tribaldello,? him 


9“ Him of Duera.” Buoso of Cre- 
mona, of the family of Duera, who was 
bribed by Guy de Montfort, to leave a 
pass between Piedmont and Parma, 
with the defence of which he had been 
intrusted by the Ghibellines, open to 
the army of Charles of Anjou, A.p. 
1265, at which the people of Cremona 
were so enraged that they extirpated 
the whole family. G. Villani, lib. vii. 


c. iv. 

10 “* Beccaria.”” Abbot of Vailombrosa, 
who was the Pope’s legate at Florence, 
where his intrigues in favor of the Ghib- 
ellines being discovered, he was _ be- 
headed. BS ss De 

11 “ Soldanieri.”” “Gianni Soldanieri,”’ 


says Villani, ‘‘ Hist.” lib. vii. c. xiv., 
** put himself at the head of the people, 
in the hopes of rising into power, not 
aware that the result would be mischief 
to the Ghibelline party, and his own 
ruin; an event which seems ever to 
have befallen him who has headed the 
populace in Florence.”—a.p. 1266. 
Ganellon.” The betrayer of Charle- 
magne, mentioned by Archbishop Tur- 
pin. He is a common instance of 
treachery with the poets of the Middle 


ges. 

18 “* Tribaldello.” Tribaldello de’ Man- 
fredi, who was Beibes to betray the 
city of Faenza, A. D. 1282. 


HELL 133 


Who oped Faenza when the people slept.” 

We now had left him, passing on our way, 
When I beheld two spirits by the ice 
Pent in one hollow, that the head of one 
Was cowl unto the other; and as bread 
Is raven’d up through hunger, the uppermost 
Did so apply his fangs to the other’s brain, 
Where the spine joins it. Not more furiously 
On Menalippus’ temples Tydeus gnawed, 

Than on that skull and on its garbage he. 

““O thou! who show’st so beastly sign of hate 
’Gainst him thou prey’st on, let me hear,’ said I, 
“The cause, on such condition, that if right 
Warrant thy grievance, knowing who ye are, 
And what the color of his sinning was, 

I may repay thee in the world above, 
If that, wherewith I speak, be moist so long.” 


CANTO XXXIII 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet is told by Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi of the 
cruel manner in which he and his children were famished in the 
tower at Pisa, by command of the Archbishop Ruggieri. He next 
discourses of the third round, called Ptolomea, wherein those are 
punished who have betrayed others under the semblance of kind- 
ness; and among these he finds the Friar Alberigo de’ Manfredi, 
who tells him of one whose soul was already tormented in that 
place, though his body appeared still to be alive upon the earth, - 
being yielded up to the governance of a fiend. 


IS jaws uplifting from their fell repast, 
That sinner wiped them on the hairs o’ the head, 
Which he behind had mangled, then began: 
“Thy will obeying, I call up afresh 
Sorrow past cure; which, but to think of, wrings 
My heart, or ere I tell on ’t. But if words, 
That I may utter, shall prove seed to bear 
Fruit of eternal infamy to him, 
The traitor whom I gnaw at, thou at once 
Shalt see me speak and weep. Who thou mayst be 


I know not, nor how here below art come: 
Classics. Vol. 34—G 


134 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


But Florentine thou seemest of a truth, 


When I do hear thee. 


Know, I was on earth 


Count Ugolino,’ and the Archbishop he 


Ruggieri. 
Now list. 


Why I neighbor him so close, 
That through effect of his ill-thoughts 


In him my trust reposing, I was ta’en 

And after murder’d, need is not I tell. 

What therefore thou canst not have heard, that is, 
How cruel was the murder, shalt thou hear, 


And know if he have wrong’d me. 


A small grate 


Within that mew, which for my sake the name 

Of Famine bears, where others yet must pine, 
Already through its opening several moons 

Had shown me, when I slept the evil sleep 

That from the future tore the curtain off. 

This one, methought, as master of the sport, 

Rode forth to chase the gaunt wolf, and his whelps, 
Unto the mountain? which forbids the sight 


Of Lucca to the Pisan. 


With lean brachs 


Inquisitive and keen, before him ranged 


1** Count Ugoling.” In the year 1288, 
in the mont uly, Pisa was much 
divided by competitors for the sover- 
eignty; one party, composed of certain 
of the Guelfi, being headed by the Judge 
Nino di Gallura de’ Visconti; another, 
consisting of others of the same faction, 
by the Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi; 
and a third by the Archbishop Rwg- 
gieri degli Ubaldini, with the Lanfran- 
chi, Sismondi, Gualandi, and _ other 
Ghibelline houses. The Count Ugolino, 
to effect his purpose, united with the 
archbishop and his party, and having be- 
trayed Nino, his sister’s son, they con- 
trived that he and his followers should 
either be driven out of Pisa, or their 
persons seized. Nino hearing this, and 
not seeing any means of defending him- 
self, retired to Calci, his castle, and 
formed an alliance with the Florentines 
the people of Lucca, against the Pisans. 
The count, before Nino was gone, in 
order to cover his treachery, when 
everything was settled for his expul- 
sion, quitted Pisa, and repaired to a 
manor of his called Settimo; whence, 
as soon as he was informed of Nino’s 
departure, he returned to Pisa with 
great rejoicing and festivity, and was 
elevated to the supreme power with 
every demonstration of triumph and 
honor. But his greatness was not of 
long continuance. It pleased the Al- 
mighty that a total reverse of fortune 
should ensue, as a punishment for his 
acts of treachery and guilt; for he was 
said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo 


Lucca. 


da Capraia, his sister’s son, on account 
of the envy and fear excited in his mind 
by the high esteem in which the gra- 
cious manners of Anselmo were held by 
the Pisans.—The power of the Guelfi be- 
ing so much diminished, the archbishop 
devised means to betray the Count Ugo- 
lino, and caused him to be suddenly 
attacked in his er by the fury of the 
people, whom he_had exasperated, by 
telling them that Ugolino had betrayed 
Pisa, and given up their castles to the 
citizers of Florence and of Lucca. He 
was immediately compelled to surren- 
der; his bastard son and his grandson 
fell in the assault; and two of his sons, 
with their two sons also, were conveyed 
to prison. In the following March, the 
Pisans, who had imprisoned the Count 
Ugolino, with two of his sons and two 
of his grandchildren, the offspring of 
his son the Count Guelfo, in a tower on 
the Piazza of the Anziani, caused the 
tower to be locked, the key thrown into 
the Arno, and all food to be withheld 


from them. In a few days they died of . 


hunger; but the count first with loud 
cries declared his penitence, and yet 
neither priest nor friar was allowed to 
shrive him. All the five, when dead, 
were dragged out of the prison and 
meanly interred; and from thencefor- 
ward the tower was called the Tower of 
Famine, and so shall ever be. 

2“ Unto_the mountain.” The moun- 
tain S. Giuliano, between Pisa and 


oe ee ee 


HELL 135 


Lanfranchi with Sismondi and Gualandi. 

After short course the father and the sons 
Seem’d tired and lagging, and methought I saw 
The sharp tusks gore their sides. When I awoke, 
Before the dawn, amid their sleep I heard 

My sons (for they were with me) weep and ask 
For bread. Right cruel art thou, if no pang 
Thou feel at thinking what my heart foretold; 
And if not now, why use thy tears to flow? 
Now had they waken’d; and the hour drew near 
When they were wont to bring us food; the mind 
Of each misgave him through his dream, and I 
Heard, at its outlet underneath lock’d up 

The horrible tower: whence, uttering not a word, 
I look’d upon the visage of my sons. 

I wept not: so all stone I felt within. 

They wept: and one, my little Anselm, cried, 
‘Thou lookest so! Father, what ails thee?’ Yet 
I shed no tear, nor answer’d all that day 

Nor the next night, until another sun 

Came out upon the world. When a faint beam 
Had to our doleful prison made its way, 

And in four countenances I descried 

The image of my own, on either hand 

Through agony I bit; and they, who thought 

I did it through desire of feeding, rose 

O’ the sudden, and cried, ‘ Father, we should grieve 
Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us: thou gavest 
These weeds of miserable flesh we wear; 

And do thou strip them off from us again.’ 

Then, not to make them sadder, I kept down 

My spirit in stillness. That day and the next 
We all were silent. Ah, obdurate earth! 

Why open’dst not upon us? When we came 

To the fourth day, then Gaddo at my feet 
Outstretch’d did fling him, crying, ‘ Hast no help 
For me, my father!’ There he died; and e’en 
Plainly as thou seest me, saw I the three 

Fall one by one ’twixt the fifth day and sixth: 
Whence I betook me, now grown blind, to grope 


136 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Over them all, and for three days aloud 

Call’d on them who were dead. Then, fasting got 
The mastery of grief.’”’ Thus having spoke, 
Once more upon ‘the wretched skull his teeth 
He fasten’d like a mastiff’s ’gainst the bone, 
Firm and unyielding. O thou Pisa! shame 

Of all the people, who their dwelling make 

In that fair region, where the Italian voice 

Is heard; since that thy neighbors are so slack 
To punish, from their deep foundations rise 
Capraia and Gorgona,*? and dam up 

The mouth of Arno; that each soul in thee 
May perish in the waters. What if fame 
Reported that thy castles were betray’d 

By Ugolino, yet no right hadst thou 

To stretch his children on the rack. For them, 
Brigata, Uguccione, and the pair | 

Of gentle ones, of whom my song hath told, 
Their tender years, thou modern Thebes, did make 
Uncapable of guilt. Onward we )pass’d, 

Where others, skarf’d in rugged folds of ice, 
Not on their feet were turn’d, but each reversed. 

There, very weeping suffers not to weep; 

For, at their eyes, grief, seeking passage, finds 
Impediment, and rolling inward turns 

For increase of sharp anguish: the first tears 
Hang cluster’d, and like crystal vizors show, 
Under the socket brimming all the cup. 

Now though the cold had from my face dislodged 
Each feeling, as ’t were callous, yet me seem’d 
Some breath of wind I felt. “ Whence cometh this,” 
Said I, “my Master? Is not here below 
All vapor quench’d?’’ “Thou shalt be speedily,” 
He answer’d, “ where thine eyes shall tell thee whence, 
The cause descrying of this airy shower.” 

Then cried out one, in the chill crust who mourn’d: 
“O souls! so cruel, that the farthest post 
Hath been assign’d you, from this face remove 
The harden’d veil; that I may vent the grief 


8“ Capraia and ‘Gorgona.” Small islands near the mouth of the Arno. 


HELL 


137 


Impregnate at my heart, some little space, 


Ere it congeal again.’ 


I thus replied: 


“Say who thou wast, if thou wouldst have mine aid; 
And if I extricate thee not, far down 
As to the lowest ice may I descend.” 
“The friar Alberigo,’* answer’d he, 
“Am I, who from the evil garden pluck’d 
Its fruitage, and am here repaid, the date 


More luscious for my fig.” 


“ Hah!” I exclaim’d, 


“ Art thou, too, dead?” “ How in the world aloft 
It fareth with my body,” answer’d he, 


“T am right ignorant. 


Such privilege 


Hath Ptolomea,® that ofttimes the soul 

Drops hither, ere by Atropos divorced. 

And that thou mayst wipe out more willingly 
The glazed tear-drops that o’erlay mine eyes, 
Know that the soul, that moment she betrays, 
As I did, yields her body to a fiend 

Who after moves and governs it at will, 

Till all its time be rounded: headlong she 


Falls to this cistern. 


And perchance above 


Doth yet appear the body of a ghost, 


Who here behind me winters. 


Him thou know’st, 


If thou but newly art arrived below. 

The years are many that have passed away, 

Since to this fastness Branca Doria® came.” 
“Now,” answer’d I, “methinks thou mockest me; 

For Branca Doria never yet hath died, 

But doth all natural functions of a man, 

Eats, drinks, and sleeps, and putteth raiment on.” 


He thus: 


“Not yet unto that upper foss 


By th’ evil talons guarded, where the pitch 


4“ The friar Alberigo.”? Alberigo de’ 
Manfredi, of Faenza, one of the Frati 
Godenti (Joyous Friars), who having 
quarrelled with some of his brotherhood, 
under pretence of wishing to be recon- 
ciled, invited them to a banquet, at the 
conclusion of which he called for the 
fruit, a signal for the assassins to rush 
in and despatch those whom he had 
marked for destruction. Hence, adds 
Landino, it is said proverbially of one 
who has been stabbed, that he had had 
some of the friar Alberigo’s fruit. 


5 ** Ptolomea.” This circle is named 
Ptolomea from Ptolemy the son of Abu- 
bus, by whom Simon and his sons were 
murdered, at a great banquet he had 
made for them. See 1 Maccabees, ch. 
xvi. Or from Ptolemy, Kin 
the betrayer of Pompey the Great. 

** Branca Doria.” The family of Do- 
ria was possessed of great influence in 
Genoa. Branca is said to have mur- 
dered his father-in-law, Michel Zanche, 
introduced in Canto xxii. 


of Egypt, 


138 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Tenacious boils, had Michel Zanche reach’d, 

When this one left a demon in his stead 

In his own body, and of one his kin, 

Who with him treachery bidet now ‘put forth 

Thy hand, and ope mine eyes.’ sl emma 

Ill manners were best courtesy to see : 
Ah Genoese! men perverse in eveTy way, 

With every foulness stain’d, why from the earth 

Are ye not cancel’d? Such an one of yours 

I with Romagna’s darkest spirit’ found, 

As, for his doings, even now in-soul 

Is in Cocytus plunged, and yet doth ‘seem 

In body still alive upon the earth. 


CANTO XXXIV 


ArcuMENT.—In the fourth and last-round of the ninth: circle, those who 


have betrayed their benefactors are wholl ice. And 
e , at whose back Dante and Virgil ascend, till 


by a secret path they reach the surface of the outer hemisphere of 


the earth, and once more obtain-si ars. 


HE banners of Hell’s Monarch do come forth 
Toward us; therefore look,” so spake my guide, 
“ Tf thou discern him.” As, when breathes a cloud 
Heavy and dense, or when the ‘shades .of night 
Fall on our hemisphere, seems view’d from far 
A windmill, which the blast stirs briskly round; 
Such was the fabric then methought I saw. 
To shield me from the wind, fort Ww 
in ide: no covert else was there. 
Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain 
Record the marvel) where the souls were all 
Whelm’d underneath, ‘transparent, as through glass 
Pellucid the frail stem. ‘Some prone were laid; 
Others stood upright, this upon the -soles, 
That on his head, a third with face to feet 
Arch’d like a bow. When to the point we came, 


7 Romagna’s darkest spirit.” The friar Alberigo. 


es ee ee 


Re i omic 


HELL . 139 


Whereat my guide was pleased that I should see 
The creature eminent in beauty once, 
He from before me:stepp’d and made me pause. 
“Lo!” he exclaim’d, “lo! Dis; and lo! the place, 
Where thou hast need to arm ‘thy heart with strength.” 
How frozen and how faint I then became, 
Ask me not, reader! for I write it not; 
Since words would fail to tell thee of my state. 
Raita Think thyself, 
If quick conception workin thee at all, 
How I did feel. That emperor, who sways 
The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from. the ice 
Stood forth; and I in stature am more like 
A giant, than the giants .are ‘this arms. 
Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits 
With such a part. rege at nllifip 
As he is hideous now, and yet did da 
o scowl upon his Maker, well from him 
May all our misery flow. Oh what a sight! 
How passing strange it seem’d, wherrt Git spy 
Upon his head three faces: one in front 
he other two with this 
shoulder join’d and at the crest; - 
The right *twixt wan and yello: em’d; the left potiaca 
To look on, such as come from Whence oe ftoe§) 
Stoops to the lowlands. Under each-sket—fert Stwiese, 
Two mighty wings, ‘enormous ‘as became 
A bird so vast. Sails never such I saw 
Outstretch’d on the wide sea. No plumes had they, 
But were in texture like a ‘bat; ‘and these 
He flapp’d i’ th’ air, that from him issued still 
Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth 
Was frozen. At six eyes he wept: the tears 
Adown three chins ditttt-wittt bloody foam. 
every mouth his ft a sinnér-ctamp d, 
Bruised as with ponderous engine; so that three 
Were in this guise tormented. But far more 
Than from that gnawing, was the foremost pang’d 
By the fierce rending, whence ofttimes the back — 
Was stript of all its skin. “ That upper spirit, 


140 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Who hath worst punishment,” so spake my guide, 


“Ts Judas, 
And plies the feet without. 


ithin 


Of th’.other two, 


Whose heads are under, from the murky jaw 
Abiipemearapecry er lo! how he doth writhe 
And speaks not. he other, Cassius, that appears 
So large of limb. But night now reascends; 
And it is time for parting. All is seen.” 

I clipp’d him round the neck; for so he bade: 
And noting time and place, he, when the wings 
Enough were oped, caught fast the shaggy sides, 
And down from pile to pile descending stepp’d 
Between the thick fell and jagged ice. 

Soon as he reach’d the point, whereat the thigh 
Upon the swelling of the haunches turns, | 
My leader there, with pain and struggling hard, 
Turn’d round his head where his feet stood before, 
And grappled at the fell as one who mounts; 

That into hell methought we turn’d again. 

“Expect that by such stairs as these,” thus spake 
The teacher, panting like a man forespent, 

“We must depart from evil so extreme:” 
Then at a rocky opening issued forth, 
And placed me on the brink to sit, next join’d 


With wary step my side. 


I raised mine eyes, 


Believing that I Lucifer should see 
Where he was lately left, but saw him now 
With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort, 
Who see not what the point was I had past, 
Bethink them if sore toil oppress’d me then. 
“ Arise,” my master cried, “ upon thy feet. 
The way is long, and much uncouth the road; 
And now within one hour and half of noon 


The sun returns.” 


It was no palace-hall 


Lofty and luminous wherein we stood, 


1 Brutus.” Landino struggles, but I 
fear in vain, to extricate Brutus from 
the unworthy lot which is here assigned 
him. He maintains, that by Brutus and 
Cassius are not meant the individuals 
known by those names, but any who 

ut a lawful monarch to death. Yet if 

sar was such, the conspirators might 


be regarded as deserving of their doom. 
If Dante, however, believed Brutus to 
have been actuated by evil motives in 
puttin 3 , the excellence 
of thé patriot’s character in other re 
spects would only have aggravated his 
guilt in that particular. 


HELL 141 


But natural dungeon where ill-footing was 

And scant supply of light. “Ere from the abyss 

I separate,” thus when risen I began: 

“My guide! vouchsafe few words to set me free 
From error’s thraldom. Where is now the ice? 
How standeth he in posture thus reversed? 

And how from eve to morn in space so brief 
Hath the sun made his transit?” He in few 
Thus answering spake: “ Thou deemest thou art still 
On the other side the centre, where I grasp’d 

The abhorred worm that boreth through the world. 
Thou wast on the other side, so long as I 
Descended; when I turn’d, thou didst o’erpass 
That point, to which from every part is drage’d 
All heavy substance. Thou art now arrived 

Under the hemisphere opposed to that, 

Which the great continent doth overspread, 

And underneath whose canopy expired 

The Man, that was born sinless and so lived. 

Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere, 

Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn 

Here rises, when there evening sets: and he, 
Whose shaggy pile we scaled, yet standeth fix’d, 

As at the first. On this part he fell down 

From heaven; and th’ earth, here prominent before, 
Through fear of him did veil her with the sea, 

And to our hemisphere retired. Perchance, 

To shun him, was the vacant space left here, 

By what of firm land on this side appears,? 

That sprang aloof.” There is a place beneath, 
From Belzebub as distant, as extends 

The vaulted tomb ;* discover’d not by sight, 

But by the sound of brooklet, that descends 

This way along the hollow of a rock, 

Which, as it winds with no precipitous course, 

The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way 

My guide and I did enter, to return 
2'* By what of firm land on this side tomba’”’). This word is used to exe 


eppears.”” The mountain of Purgatory. press the whole depth of the infernal 
“The vaulted tomb” (* La region. 


142 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To the fair world: and heedless of repose 

We climb’d, he first, I following his steps, 
Till on our yiew the beautiful lights of heaven 
Dawn’d through a circular opening in the cave: 


— Theace-issuing-we again beheld the stars. stars. 


PURGATORY 


CANTO I 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet describes the delight he experienced at issuing a 
little before dawn from the infernal regions, into the pure air that 
surrounds the isle of Purgatory; and then relates how, turning to 
the right, he beheld four_stars never seen before, but by our first 
parents, and met on his left the shade of Cato of Utica, who, having 
warned him and Virgil what is needful to be done before they pro- 
ceed on their way through Purgatory, disappears; and the two poets 
go toward the shore, where Virgil cleanses Dante’s face with the 
dew, and girds him with a reed, as Cato had commanded. 


"ER better waves to speed her rapid course 
() The light bark of my genius lifts the sail, 
Well pleased to leave so cruel sea behind; 
And of‘that-sererd region will I sing, | 
In which the human spirit from sinful blot 
Is purged, and for ascent to Heaven prepares. 
Here, O ye hallow’d Nine! for in your train 
I follow, here the deaden’d strain revive; 
Nor let Calliope refuse to sound 
A somewhat higher song, of that loud tone 
Which when the wretched birds of chattering note? 
Had heard, they of forgiveness lost all hope. 
_ Sweet hue of eastern sapphire, that was spread 
O’er the serene aspect of the pure air, 
High up as the first circle,? to mine eyes 
Unwonted joy renew’d, soon as I ’scaped 
Forth from the atmosphere of deadly gloom, 
That had mine eyes and bosom fill’d with grief. 

i‘ Birds of chattering note.” For the §“‘ The first circle.’ Either, as some 
fable of the daughters of Pierus who suppose, the moon; or, as Lombardi 
challenged the muses to sing, and were (who likes to be as far off the rest of 
by them changed into magpies, see the commentators as nossible) will have 
Ovid, ‘* Met.” lib. v. fab. 5. it, the highest circle of the stars, 

_ 143 


144 


3 Planet.” us. 6‘ Our first parents.” In the terres: 
4“ The Bisco tiene.” The constel- trial paradise, placed, as we shall see, 
by our Poet, on the summit of Purga- 


tory. 
7“ The wain.” Charles’s Wain, or 


lation of the Fish veiled by the more 
luminous body of Venus, then a morn- 


Te 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The radiant planet,® that to love invites, 
Wade allthe-Grient laugh, and veil’d beneath 
The Pisces’ light,* that in his escort came. 

To the right hand I turn’d, and fix’d my mind 
On the other pole attentive, where I saw 


Four Sas * ne'er seen before save by the ken 


Of our first parents.© Heaven of their rays 
Seem’d joyous. O thou northern site! bereft 
Indeed, and widow’d, since of these deprived. 

As from this view I had desisted, straight 
Turning a little toward the other pole, | 
There from whence now the wain? had disappear’d, 
I saw an old man ® standing by my side 
Alone, so worthy of reverence in his look, 

That ne’er from son to father more was owed. 
Low down his beard, and mix’d with hoary white, 
Descended, like his locks, which, parting, fell 
Upon his breast in double fold. The beams 

Of those four luminaries on his face 

So brightly shone, and with such radiance clear 
Deck’d it, that I beheld him as the sun. 

“ Say who are ye, that stemming the blind stream, 
Forth from the eternal prison-house have fled?” 
He spoke and moved those venerable plumes. 

“ Who hath conducted, or with lantern sure 
Lights you emerging from the depth of night, 
That makes the infernal valley ever black? 
Are the firm statutes of the dread abyss 

Broken, or in high heaven new laws ordain’d, 
That thus, condemn’d, ye to my caves approach?” 

My guide, then laying hold on me, by words 
And intimations given with hand and head, 
Made my bent knees and eye submissive pay 
Due reverence; then thus to him replied: 

“Not of myself I come; a Dame from heaven ® 


ing star. he 
“Four stars.” The four stars are Bodtes. 

here symbolical of the four cardinal vir- 8 “* An old man.” 

tues, Prudence Justice, Fortitude, and °“ A Dame from ven.” 


See “ Hell,” ii. 54. 


PURGATORY 145 


Descending, him besought me in my charge 

To bring. But since thy will implies, that more 
Our true condition I unfold at large, 

Mine is not to deny thee thy request. 

This mortal ne’er hath seen the furthest gloom; 
But erring by his folly had approach’d 

So near, that little space was left to turn. 

Then, as before I told, I was despatch’d 

To work his rescue; and no way remain’d 

Save this which I have ta’en. I have display’d 
Before him all the regions of the bad; 

And purpose now those spirits to display, 

That under thy command are purged from sin. 
How I have brought him would be long to say. 
From high descends the virtue, by whose aid 

I to thy sight and hearing him have led. 

Now may our coming please thee. In the search 
Of liberty he journeys: that how dear, 

They know who for her sake have life refused. 
Thou knowest, to whom death for her was sweet 
In Utica, where thou didst leave those weeds, 
That in the last great day will shine so bright. 
He breathes, and I of Minos am not bound, 
For us the eternal edicts are unmoved’ 

Abiding in that circle, where the eyes 

Of thy chaste Marcia beam, who still in look 
Prays thee, O hallow’d spirit! to own her thine 
Then by her love we implore thee, let us pass 
Through thy seven regions ;?° for which, best thanks 
I for thy favor will to her return, 

If mention there below thou not disdain.” 

“ Marcia so pleasing in my sight was found,” 
He then to him rejoin’d, “ while I was there, 
That all she ask’d me I was fain to grant. 

Now that beyond the accursed stream she dwells, 
She may no longer move me, by that law," 
Which was ordain’d me, when I issued thence. 
7%“ Through thy seven regions.” The livered by Christ from Limbo, 3 
seven rounds of Purgatory, in which change of affections accompanied his 


.the seven capital sins are punished. change of place. 
u* By that law.”” When he was de- _ : 


146 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Not so, if Dame from heaven, as thou sayst, 
Moves and directs thee; then no flattery needs. 
Enough for me that in her name thou ask. 
Go therefore now: and with a slender reed ** 
See that thou duly gird him, and his face 
Lave, till all sordid stain thou wipe from thence. 
For not with eye, by any cloud obscured, 
Would it be seemly before him to come, 

_ Who stands the foremost minister in Heaven. 
This islet all around, there far beneath, 
Where the wave beats it, on the oozy bed 
Produces store of reeds. No other plant, 
Cover’d with leaves, or harden’d in its stalk, 
There lives, not bending to the water’s sway. 
After, this way return not; but the sun 
Will show you, that now rises, where to take 
The mountain in its easiest ascent.” 

He disappear’d; and I myself upraised 
Speechless, and to my guide retiring close, 
Toward him turn’d mine eyes. He thus began: 
“My son! observant thou my steps pursue. 
We must retreat to rereward; for that way 
The champain to its low extreme declines.” 

The dawn had chased the matin hour of prime, 
Which fled before it, so that from afar 
I spied the trembling of the ocean stream. 

We traversed the deserted plain, as one 
Who, wander’d from his track, thinks every step 
Trodden in vain till he regain the path. 

When we had come, where yet the tender dew 
Strove with the sun, and in a place where fresh 
The wind breathed o’er it, while it slowly dried; 
Both hands extended on the watery grass 
My master placed, in graceful act and kind. 
Whence I of his intent before apprised, 

_Stretch’d out to him my cheeks suffused with tears. 
-- There to my visage he anew restored ! 
That hue which the dun shades of hell conceal’d.. 


=. EY 
Sip} 


13 « A’ slendet ieee The reed is bility, ‘to’-be -meant fas: a type of sim- 
here supposed, with sufficient proba-  plicity and patience. 


PURGATORY 


147 


Then on the solitary shore arrived, 
That never sailing on its waters saw 
Man that could after measure back his course, 
He girt me in such manner as had pleased 
Him who instructed; and, oh strange to tell! 
As he selected every humble plant, 
Wherever one was pluck’d another there 
Resembling, straightway in its place arose. 


CANTO II 


ARGUMENT.—They behold a vessel under conduct of an angel, coming 
over the waves with spirits to Purgatory, among whom, when the 
passengers have landed, janie recognizes his triend Case'la; but, 
while they are entertained by him with a song, they hear Cato ex- 
claiming against their negligent loitering, and at that rebuke hasten 


forward to the mountain. 


That covers, with the most exalted point 


N OW had the sun? to that horizon reach’d, 


Of its meridian circle, Salem’s walls; 


nd ni 


that opposite to him her orb 


Rounds, from the stream of Ganges issued forth, 
Holding the scales,? that from her hands are dropt 
When she reigns highest :* so that where I was, 
Aurora’s white and vermeil-tinctured cheek 
To orange turn’d as she in age increased. 
Meanwhile we linger’d by the water’s brink, 

Like men, who, musing on their road, in thought 
Journey, while motionless the body rests. 

~ When lo! as near upon the hour of dawn, 
Through the thick vapors Mars with fiery beam 
Glares down in the West, over the ocean floor; 
So seem’d, what once again I hope to view, 
A light, so swiftly coming through the sea, 
No winged course might equal its career. 


1" Now had the sun.” Dante was 
now antipodal to Jerusalem; so that 
while the sun was setting with respect 
to that place, which he supposes to be 
the middle of the inhabited earth, to 
him it was rising. A . 
ap The scales.” The constellation Li- 


$“ When she reigns highest” 
(‘‘ Quando soverchia ’’) is (according to 
Venturi, whom I ave __ followed 
‘‘ when the autumnal equinox is passed.” 
Lombardi supposes it to mean ‘ when 
the nights begin to increase, that is, 
after the summer solstice.” 


oe 


148 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


From which when for a space I had withdrawn 
Mine eyes, to make inquiry of my guide, 

Again I look’d, and saw it grown in size 

And brightness: then on either side appear’d 
Something, but that I knew not, of bright hue, 

And by degrees from underneath it came 

Another. My preceptor silent yet ~“ 

Stood, while the brightness, that we first discern’d, 
Open’d the form of wings: then when he knew 
The pilot, cried aloud, “Down! Down! Bend low 
Thy knees! Behold God’s angel! Fold thy hands! 
Now shalt thou see true ministers indeed! 

Lo! how all human means he sets at naught; 

So that nor oar he needs, nor other sail 

Except his wings, between such distant shores. 

Lo! how straight up to heaven he holds them rear’d, 
Winnowing the air with those eternal plumes, 
That not like mortal hairs fall off or change.” 

As more and more toward us came, more bright 
Appear’d the bird of God, nor could the eye 
Endure his splendor near: I mine bent down. 

He drove ashore in a small bark so swift 

And _light, that in its course no wave it drank. 
The heavenly steersman at the prow was seen, 
Visibly written “ Blessed ” in his looks. 
Within, a hundred spirits and more there sat. 

“In Exitu* Israel de Egypto,” 

All with one voice together sang, with what 

In the remainder of that hymn is writ. 

Then soon as with the sign of Holy Cross 

He bless’d them, they at once leap’d out on land: 
He, swiftly as he came, return’d. The crew, 
There left, appear’d astounded with the place, 
Gazing around, as one who sees new sights. 

From every side the sun darted his beams, 

And with his arrowy radiance from mid heaven_ 
Had chased the Capricorn, when that strange tribe, 
Lifting their eyes toward us: “If ye know, 
Declare what path will lead us to the mount.” — 


4“In Exitu.” ‘When Israel came out of Egypt.” Ps. cxiv, 


PURGATORY Sean 


Them Virgil answer’d: “ Ye suppose, perchance, 
Us well acquainted with this place: but here, 
We, as yourselves, are strangers. Not long erst 
We came, before you but a little space, 

By other road so rough and hard, that now 

The ascent will seem to us as play.” The spirits, 
Who from my breathing had perceived I lived, 
Grew pale with wonder. As the multitude 
Flock round a herald sent with olive branch, 

To hear what news he bring's, and in their haste 
Tread one another down; e’en so at sight 

Of me those happy spirits were fix’d, each one 
Forgetful of its errand to depart | 

Where, cleansed from sin, it might be made all fair. 

Then one I saw darting before the rest 
With such fond ardor to embrace me, I 
To do the like was moved. O shadows vain! 
Except in outward semblance: thrice my hands 
I clasp’d behind it, they as oft return’d 
Empty into my breast again. Surprise 
I need must think was painted in my looks, 

For that the shadow smiled and backward drew. 
To follow it I hasten’d, but with voice 

Of sweetness it enjoin’d me to desist. 

Then who it was I knew, and pray’d of it, 

To talk with me it would a little pause. 

It answer’d: “ Thee as in my mortal frame 

I loved, so loosed from it I love thee still, 

And therefore pause: but why walkest thou here? ” 

“Not without purpose once more to return, 
Thou find’st me, my Casella,> where I am, 
Journeying this way” I said: “‘ but how of thee 
Hath so much time been lost?” He answer’d straight: 

“No outrage hath been done to me, if he,® 
Who when and whom he chooses takes, hath oft 


&* My Casella.”” A Florentine, cele- ‘** Dante shall give fame leave to set thee 


brated for his skill in music, “ in whose igher 

company,” says Landino, “ Dante often Than his Casella, whom he wooed to 
recreated his spirits, wearied by severer sing, - 

studies.”” See Dr. Burney’s “ History Met in the milder shades of Purga- 
of Music,” vol. ii. cap. iv. p. 322. Mil- ory.” 

ton has a fine allusion to this meeting in ®** He.”” The conducting angel. 


his sonnet to Henry Lawes: 


150 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Denied me passage here; since of just will 
His will he makes. These three months past? indeed, 
He, who so chose to‘enter, ‘with free leave 
Hath taken; whence I wandering by ‘the shore ® 
Where Tiber’s wave grows salt, of him gain’d kind 
Admittance, at that river’s mouth, toward which 
His wings are pointed; for there always throng 
All such as not 'to Acheron descend.” 
Then I: “If new law ‘taketh not from ‘thee 
Memory or custom of love-tuned song, 
That whilom all‘my cares had power to ’swage; 
Please thee therewith a ‘little ‘to console 
My spirit, that encumber’d with its frame, 
Travelling so far, of :pain4s:overcome.” 
“Love, that discourses in my ‘thoughts,” he then 
Began in such soft accents,‘that within 
The sweetness ‘thrills‘me*yet. My gentle guide, 
And all who came with ‘him, ‘so well were pleased, 
That seem’d naught ‘élse might in ‘their ‘thoughts have room. 
Fast fix’d in mute ‘attention to ‘his notes 
We stood, when lo! that old ‘man venerable 
Exclaiming, “ How is this, ye tardy spirits? 
What negligence detains ‘you ‘loitering here? 
Run to the mountain ‘to cast off ‘those ‘scales, 
That from your eyes ‘the sight of »God «conceal.” 
As a wild flock of pigeons, ‘to’their food 
Collected, blade or tares, without ‘their :pride 
Accustom’d, and in still and quiet ‘sort, 
If aught alarm ‘them, ‘suddenly desert 
Their meal, assail’d by more important care; 
So I that new-come troop beheld, ‘the ‘song 
Deserting, hasten to the mountain’s side, 
As one who goes, yet, where he tends, ‘knows not. 
Nor with less hurried step did we depart. 
7“* These three months past.”” Since punishment were supposed to pass overt 


the time of the Jubilee, during which to Purgatory as soon as they pleased. 
all spirits not condemned ‘to ‘eternal 8“ The sshore.”? Ostia. 


OE a RS Say sgl 


apne eet | 


PURGATORY: “ISI 


CANTO TI 


ARGUMENT.—Our Poet, perceiving .n ow except that .cast by his 
own body, is fear fu sat Ning has coserted him; but he is iteed 
from that error, and both arri gether at the foot of the moun- 
tain; on finding it too steep to climb, they inquire the way from a 
troop of spirits that are.coming toward them, and are by them shown 
which is the easiest ascent. Manfredi, King of Naples, who is one 


of these spirits, bids Dante inform his daughter Costanza, Queen of 
Arragon, of the manner in which he had died. 


HEM sudden flight ‘had scatter’d-o’er the plain, 
Turn’d toward the mountain, whither reason’s voice 
Drives us: I, tomy faithful company 

Adhering, left it‘not. ‘For how, of ‘him 
Deprived, might I‘have sped? or who, beside, 
Would o’er the mountainous tract have led my steps? 
He, with the bitter pang of self-remorse, 
Seem’d smitten. O clear conscience, and upright! 
How doth a little failing wound thee sore. 
Soon as his feet desisted (slackening pace) 
From haste, that mars all decency of:act, 
My mind, that in itself before was wrapt, 
Its thought expanded, as with joy restored; 
And full against the steep ascent I set 
My face, where ‘highest ‘to heaven its top o’erflows. 
The sun, that flared behind, with ruddy beam 
Before my form was ‘broken; for in-me 
His rays resistance:met. I 'turn’d aside 
With fear of being left, when I beheld 
Only before myself the ground obscured. 
When thus my solace, turning him around, 
Bespake me kindly: “ Why distrustest thou? 
Believest not I'am ‘with ‘thee, thy sure guide? 
[t now is evening there, where ‘buried lies 
The body in which I cast a shade, removed 
To Naples! from Brundusium’s ‘wall. ‘Nor thou 
Marvel, if before-me-no shadow fall, 
More than that in the skyey element 


21" To Naples.” Virgil died:at Brundusium, from whence his body is said 
' to have been removed to Naples. 


152 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


One ray obstructs not other. To endure 
Torments of heat and cold extreme, like frames 
That virtue hath disposed, which, how it works, 
Wills not to us should be reveal’d. Insane, 
Who hopes our reason may that space explore, 
Which holds three persons in one substance knit. 
Seek not the wherefore, race of human-kind; 
Could ye have seen the whole, no need had been 
For Mary to bring forth. Moreover, ye 
Have seen such men desiring fruitlessly ; 
To whose desires, repose would have been given, 
That now but serve them for eternal grief. 
_I speak of Plato, and the Stagirite, 
And others many more.” And then he bent 
Downward his forehead, and in troubled mood 
Broke off his speech. Meanwhile we had arrived 
Far as the mountain’s foot, and there the rock 
Found of so steep ascent, that nimblest steps 
To climb it had been vain. The most remote, 
Most wild, untrodden path, in all the tract 
*Twixt Lerice and Turbia,? were to this 
A ladder easy and open of access. _ 

‘Who knows on which hand now the steep declines,” 
My master said, and paused; “so that he may 
Ascend, who journeys without aid of wing?” 

And while, with looks directed to the ground, 
The meaning of the pathway he explored, 

And I gazed upward round the stony height; 
On the left hand appear’d to us a troop 

Of spirits, that toward us moved their steps; 
Yet moving seem’d not, they so slow approach’d. 

I thus my guide address’d: “ Upraise thine eyes: 
Lo! that way some, of whom thou mayst obtain 
Counsel, if of thyself thou find’st it not.” 

Straightway he look’d, and with free speech replied: 
“Let us tend thither: they but softly come. 

And thou be firm in hope, my son beloved.” 

Now was that crowd from us distant as far, 


2“ Twixt Lerice and Turbia.” At Genoese republic; the former on the 
that time the two extremities of tha east, the latter on the west. 


PURGATORY 153 


(When we some thousand steps, I say, had past) 
As at a throw the nervous arm could fling; 
When all drew backward on the massy crags 
Of the steep bank, and firmly stood unmoved, 
As one, who walks in doubt, might stand to look. 
“O spirits perfect! O already chosen!” 
Virgil to them began: “ by that blest peace, 
Which, as I deem, is for you all prepared, 
Instruct us where the mountain low declines, 
So that attempt to mount it be not vain. 
For who knows most, him loss of time most grieves.” 

As sheep, that step from forth their fold, by one, 
Or pairs, or three at once; meanwhile the rest 
Stand fearfully, bending the eye and nose 
To ground, and what the foremost does, that do 
‘The others, gathering round her if she stops, 
Simple and quiet, nor the cause discern ; 

So saw I moving to advance the first, 

Who of that fortunate crew were at the head, 

Of modest mien, and graceful in their gait. 

When they before me had beheld the light 

From my right side fall broken on the ground, 

So that the shadow reach’d the cave; they stopp’d, 

And somewhat back retired: the same did all 

Who follow’d, though unweeting of the cause. 
“Unask’d of you, yet freely I confess, 

This is a human body which ye see. 

That the sun’s light is broken on the ground, 

Marvel not: but believe, that not without 

Virtue derived from Heaven, we to climb 

Over this wall aspire.” So them bespake 

My master; and that virtuous tribe rejoin’d: 

“Turn, and before you there the entrance lies ;” 

Making a signal to us with bent hands. 

Then of them one began. “ Whoe’er thou art, | 
Who journey’st thus this way, thy visage turn, 
Think if me elsewhere thou hast ever seen.” 

I toward him turn’d, and with fix’d eye beheld. 
Comely and fair, and penile of aspect 
He seem’d, but on oné brow a gash was mark’d. 


154 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


When humbly I disclaim’d to have beheld 


Him ever: 


“Now behold!” he said, and show’d 


High on his breast a wound: then smiling spake. 
“Tam Manfredi,* grandson to the Queen 
Costanza :* whence I pray thee, when return’d, 

er > go, the parent glad 
Of Aragonia and Sicilia’s pride; 
Aad of the truth inform Bo if of me 
Aught else be told. When by two mortal blows 
My frame was shatter’d, I betook myself 
Weeping to him, who of free will forgives. 
My sins were horrible: but so wide arms 
Hath goodness infinite, that it receives 


All who turn to it. 


Had this text divine 


Been of Cosenza’s shepherd better scann’d, 

Who then by Clement * on my hunt was set, 

Yet at the bridge’s head my bones had lain, 

Near Benevento, by the heavy mole 

Protected; but the rain now drenches them, 
And the wind drives, out of the kingdom’s bounds, 
Far as the stream of Verde,’ where, with lights 
Extinguish’d, he removed them from their bed. 
Yet by their curse we are not so destroy’d, 

But that the eternal love may turn, while hope 


Retains her verdant blossom. 


True it is, 


That such one as in contumacy dies 
Against the holy Church, though he repent, 


8 “ Manfredi.”” King of Naples and 
Sicily, and the natural son of Frederick 
I e was lively and agreeable in his 
manners, and delighted in poetry, musi 
and dancing. But he was luxurious an 
ambitious, void of religion, and in his 
philosophy an Epicurean. He fell in 
the battle with Charles of Anjou in 1265, 
alluded to in Canto xxviii. of “ Hell, 
ver. 13, or rather in that which ensued in 


the course of a few days at Benevento. 


But the successes of Charles were so 
rapidly followed up that our author, ex- 
act as he generally is, might not have 
thought it necessary to distinguish them 
in point of time; for this seems the best 
method of seco iag some little ap- 
parent inconsistency between him and 
the annalist. ‘‘ Dying excommunicated, 
King Charles did not allow of his being 
buried in sacred ground, but he was in- 
terred near the bridge of Benevento; 
and on his grave there was cast a stone 


by every one of the army, whence there 
was formed a great mound of stones, 
But some have said, that afterward, by 
command of the Pope, the Bishop of 
Cosenza took up his body and sent it 
out of the kingdom, because it was the 
land of the hurch; and that it was 
buried oe the river Verde, on the bor- 
ders of the kingdom and of Campagna. 
4 “* Costanza.”’ See “ Paradise,”, Canto 
iii. 121. 

5“ My fair daughter.” Costanza, the 
daughter of Manfredi, and wife of Peter 
III, King of Arragon, oy whom she 
was mother to Frederick, King oi Sicily, 
and James, King of Arragon. With the 
latter of these she was at Rome, 1296, 

©“ Clement.” Pope Clement IV. 

™*The stream of Verde.” A river 
near Ascoli, that falls into the Tronto. 
The “ extinguished lights ” formed part 
of the ceremony at the interment of 
one excommunicated. 


PURGATORY 155 


Must wander thirty-fold for all the time 

In his presumption past: if such decree 

Be not by prayers of good men shorter made. 
Look therefore if thou canst advance my bliss; 
Revealing to my good Costanza, how 

Thou hast beheld me, and beside the terms 
Laid on me of that interdict; for here 

By means of those below much profit comes.” 


CANTO IV. 


ARGUMENT.—Dante and Virgil ascend the mountain of Purgatory, by a 
steep and narrow path pent in on each side by rock, till they reach 
a part of it that opens into a ledge or cornice. There seating them- 
selves, and turning to the east, Dante wonders at seeing the sun on 
their left, the cause of which is explained to him by Virgil; and 
while they continue their discourse, a voice addresses them, at which 
they turn, and find several spirits behind the rock, and among the 
rest one named Belacqua, who had been known to our Poet on 
earth, and who tells that he is doomed to linger there on account of 
his having delayed his repentance to the last. 


HEN by sensations of delight or pain, 
That any of our faculties hath seized, 
Entire the soul collects herself, it seems 
She is intent upon that power alone; 
And thus the error is disproved, which holds 
The soul not singly lighted in the breast. 
. And therefore when as aught is heard or seen, 
That firmly keeps the soul toward it turn’d, 


Time passes. and 2 tman_perceives it not. 
at, whereby we hearken, 1s one power; 
Another that, which the whole spirit hath: 
This is as it were bound, while that is free. 

This found I true by proof, hearing that spirit, . 
And wondering; for full fifty steps? aloft 7" 
The sun had measured, unobserved of me, 

we arrived where all with one accord | 
The spirits shouted, * ‘Here is what ye ask,” if 


aa ae Full ‘fitt steps.” Three hours and twenty minutes, fifteen’ degrees being 
reckoned to an hour. : i 


156 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


A larger aperture ofttimes is stopt, 
With forked stake of thorn by villager, 
When the ripe grape imbrowns, than was the path, 
By which my guide, and I behind him close, 
Ascended solitary, when that troop 
Departing left us. On Sanleo’s? road 
Who journeys, or to Noli* low descends, 
Or mounts Bismantua’s * height, must use his feet; 
But here a man had need to fly, I mean 
With the swift wing and plumes of high desire, 
Conducted by his aid, who gave me hope, 
And with light furnish’d to direct my way. 

We through the broken rock ascended, close 
Pent on each side, while underneath the ground 
Ask’d help of hands and feet. When we arrived 
Near on the highest ridge of the steep bank, 
Where the plain level open’d, I exclaim’d, 

“O Master! say, which way can we proceed.” 

He answer’d, “ Let no step of thine recede. 
Behind me gain the mountain, till to us 
Some practised guide appear.” That eminence 
Was lofty, that no eye might reach its point; 
And the side proudly rising, more than line 
From the mid quadrant to the centre drawn. 
I, wearied, thus began: “ Parent beloved! 
Turn and behold how I remain alone, 
If thou stay not.” ‘ My son!” he straight replied, 
“Thus far put forth thy strength;” and to a track 
Pointed, that, on this side projecting, round 
Circles the hill. His words so spurr’d me on, 
That I, behind him, clambering, forced myself, 
Till my feet press’d the circuit plain beneath. 
There both together seated, turn’d we round 
To eastward, whence was our ascent: and oft 
Many beside have with delight look’d back. 

First on the nether shores I turn’d mine eyes, 


3“ Sanleo.” A fortress on the sum- 3“ Noli.” In the Genoese territory, 
mit of Montefeltro. The situation is between Finale and Savona. 
described by Troya, “ Veltro Allegor- ‘“ Bismantua.” A steep mountain in 


ico,” p. 11%. It is a conspicuous object the territory of Reggio. 
to travellers along the cornice on the 

Riviera di Genoa. 

Fog 


PURGATORY 


157 


Then raised them to the sun, and wondering mark’d _ 
Lhat trom the lett it smote us. oon perceived 
That poet sage, how at the car of light 
Amazed ° I stood, where ’twixt us and the north 
Its course it enter’d. Whence he thus to me: 
“Were Leda’s offspring ® now in company 
Of that broad mirror, that high up and low 
Imparts his light beneath, thou mightst behold 
The ruddy Zodiac nearer to the Bears 
Wheel, if its ancient course it not forsook. 
How that may be, if thou wouldst think; within 
Pondering, imagine Sion with this mount 
Placed on the earth, so that to both be one 
Horizon, geoato Restispherss apart | 
Where lies the pa at Phaéton ill knew 
To guide his erring chariot: thou wilt see ° 
How of necessity by this, on one, 
He passes, while by that on the other side; 
If with that clear view thine intellect attend.” 

“ Of truth, kind teacher!” I exclaim’d, “ so clear 
Aught saw I never, as I now discern, 
Where seem’d my ken to fail, that the mid orb ® 
Of the supernal motion (which in terms 
Of art is call’d the Equator, and remains 
Still ’twixt the sun and winter, for the cause 
Thou hast assign’d, from hence toward the north 
Departs, when those, who in the Hebrew land 
Were dwellers, saw it toward the warmer part. 
But if it please thee, I would gladly know, 


5 ** Amazed.” He wonders that being 
turned to the east he should see the sun 
on his left, since in all the regions on 
this side of the tropic of Cancer it is 
seen on the right of one who turns his 
face toward the east; not recollecting 
that he was now antipodal to Europe, 
. from whence he had seen the sun tak- 
ing an opposite course. 

6 “* Were Leda’s offspring.”’ ‘* As the 
constellation of the Gemini is nearer 
the Bears than Aries is, it is certain that 
if the sun, instead of being in Aries, 
had been in Gemini, both the sun and 
that et of the Zodiac made ‘ ruddy’ 
by the sun, would have been seen to 
* wheel nearer to the Bears.’ By the 
‘ruddy Zodiac’ must necessarily be un- 
derstood that portion of the Zodiac 
affected or made red by the sun; for 


Classics. Vol. 34—H 


the whole of the Zodiac never changes, 
nor appears to change, with respect to 
the remainder of the heavens.”—Lom- 


ardi. 

7“ The path.” The ecliptic. 

8“ Thou wilt see.” ‘“‘ If you consider 
that this mountain of Purgatory, and 
that of Sion, are antipodal to each other, 
you will perceive that the sun must rise 
on opposite sides of the respective em- 
inences.”’ 

®°“ That the mid orb.” “That the 
equator (which is always situated be- 
tween that part where, when the sun 
is, he causes summer, and the other 
where his absence produces winter) re- 
cedes from this mountain toward the 
north, at the time when the Jews in- 
habiting Mount Sion saw it depart to- 
ward the south.”—Lombardi. 


158 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


far we have to jo 

Mounts higher, than this sight of mine can mount.” 

He thus tome: “ Such is this steep ascent, 
That it is ever difficult at first, 
But_more a man proceeds, less evil grows.” 
When pleasant it shall seem to thee, so much 
That upward going shall be easy to thee 
As in a vessel to go down the tide, 
Then of this path thou wilt have reach’d the end. 
There hope to rest thee from thy toil. No more 
I answer, and thus far for certain know.” 
As he his words had spoken, near to us 
A voice there sounded: “ Yet ye first perchance 
May to repose you by constraint be led.” 
At sound thereof each turn’d; and on the left 
A huge stone we beheld, of which nor I 
Nor he before was ware. Thither we drew; 
And there were some, who in the shady place 
Behind the rock were standing, as a man 
Through idleness might stand. Among them one, 
Who seem’d to be much wearied, sat him down, 
And with his arms did fold his knees about, 
Holding his face between them downward bent. 

“Sweet Sir!” I cried, “ behold that man who shows 


Himself more idle than if_laziness Teciseean 
Ware Sister to him?” Straight he turn’d to us, 
And, o’er the thigh lifting his face, observed, 
Then in these accents spake: ‘“ Up then, proceed, 
Thou valiant one.” Straight who it was I knew; 
Nor could the pain I felt (for want of breath 
Still somewhat urged me) hinder my approach. 
And when I came to him, he scarce his head 
Uplifted, saying, “ Well hast thou discern’d, 
How from the left the sun his chariot leads.” 
His lazy acts and broken words my lips 
To laughter somewhat moved; when I began: 
“ Belacqua,* now for thee I grieve no more. 


10 “* But more a man proceeds, less there is found this brief notice: ‘* This 
evil grows.’ nding he Belacqua was an excellent master of the 
j is sin Ls harp and lute, but very negligent in his 

11 “Belacqua.” Concerni is man, affairs both spiritual and tempora al.”” 
in the margin of the Monte Casino MS. 


PURGATORY 159 


But tell, why thou art seated upright there. 

Waitest thou escort to conduct thee hence? 

Or blame I only thine accustom’d ways?” 

Then he: “ My brother! of what use to mount, 

When, to my suffering, would not let me pass 

The bird of God, who at the portal sits? 

Behoves so long that heaven first bear me round 

Without its limits, as in life it bore; 

Because I, to the end, repentant sighs 

Delay’d; if prayer do not aid me first, 

That riseth up from heart which lives in grace. 

What other kind avails, not heard in heaven? ” 
Before me now the poet, up the mount 

Ascending, cried: “ Haste thee: for see the sun 

Has touch’d the point meridian; and the night 

Now covers with her foot Marocco’s shore.” 


CANTO V 


ARGUMENT.—They meet with others, who had deferred their repentance 


till they were overtaken by a violent death, when sufficient space 
being allowed them, they were then saved; and among these, Giac- 
opo del Cassero, Buonconte da Montefeltro, and Pia, a lady of 
Sienna. 


OW had I left those spirits, and pursued 

The steps of my conductor; when behind, 

Pointing the finger at me, one exclaim’d: 
“ See, how it seems as if the light not shone 
From the left hand 1 of him beneath,” and he, 
As living, seems to be led on.” Mine eyes, 
I at that sound reverting, saw them gaze, 
Through wonder, first at me; and then at me 
And the light broken underneath, by turns. } 
“Why are thy thoughts thus riveted,” my guide 
Exclaim’d, “ that thou hast slack’d thy pace? or how 


i“_ it seems as if the light not on their left; so now that they have 
shone risen and are again going forward, it 

From the left hand.” must be on the opposite side of them. 

The sun was, therefore, on the right of 2‘* Of him beneath.” Of Dante, who 


our travellers. For, as before, when was following Virgil up the mountain, 
seated and looking to the east from and therefore was the lower of the two. 
whence they had ascended, the sun was 


360 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Imports it thee, what thing is whisper’d here? 

Come after me, and to their babblings leave 

The crowd. Beas a tower, that, firmly set, 

Shakes not its top for any blast that blows. 

He, in whose bosom thought on thought shoots out, 

Still of his aim is wide, in that the one 

Sicklies and wastes to naught the other’s strength.” 
What other could I answer, save “ I come’? 

I said it, somewhat with that color tinged, 

Which ofttimes pardon meriteth for man. 
Meanwhile traverse along the hill there came, 

A little way before us, some who sang 

The “ Miserere ” in responsive strains. 

When they perceived that through my body I 

Gave way not for the rays to pass, their song 

Straight to a long and hoarse exclaim they changed; 

And two of them, in guise of messengers, 

Ran on to meet us, and inquiring ask’d: 

“Of your condition we would gladly learn.” 
To them my guide: “ Ye may return, and bear 

Tidings to them who sent you, that his frame 

Is real flesh. If, as I deem, to view 

His shade they paused, enough is answer’d them: 

Him let them honor: they may prize him well.” 
Ne’er saw I fiery vapors with such speed 

Cut through the serene air at fall of night, 

Nor August’s clouds athwart the setting sun 

That upward these did not m shorter space 

Return; and, there arriving, with the rest 

Wheel back on us, as with loose rein a troop. 
“Many,” exclaim’d the bard, “are*these, who throng 

Around us: to petition thee, they come. 

Go therefore on, and listen as thou go’st.” 
“O spirit! who go’st on to blessedness, 

With the same limbs that clad thee at thy birth,” 

Shouting they came: “a little rest thy step. 

Look if thou any one amongst our tribe 

Hast e’er beheld, that tidings of him there * 

Thou mayst report. Ah! wherefore go’st thou on? 

3 “ There.”” Upon the earth. 


PURGATORY 


Ah! wherefore tarriest thou not ? 


16% 


Weaill 


By violence died, and to our latest hour 
Were sinners, but then warn’d by light from heaven; 
So that, repenting and forgiving, we 
Did issue out of life at peace with God, 
Who, with desire to see him, fills our heart.” 
Then I:  “ The visages of all I scan, 


Yet none of ye remember. 


But if aught 


That I can do may please you, gentle spirits! 
Speak, and I will perform it; by that peace, 
Which, on the steps of guide so excellent 
Following, from world to world, intent I seek.” 


In answer he began: 


“None here distrusts 


Thy kindness, though not promised with an oath; 
So as the will fail not for want of power. 
Whence I, who sole before the other speak, 
Entreat thee, if thou ever see that land * 
Which lies between Romagna and the realm 

Of Charles, that of thy courtesy thou pray 
Those who inhabit Fano, that for me 

Their adorations duly be put up, 

By which I may purge off my grievous sins. 


From thence I came.® 


But the deep passages, 


Whence issued out the blood ® wherein I dwelt, 
Upon my bosom in Antenor’s land? 

Were made, where to be more secure I thought. 
The author of the deed was Este’s prince, 

Who, more than right could warrant, with his wrath 


Pursued me. 


Had I toward Mira fled, 


When overta’en at Oriaco, still 

Might I have breathed. But to the marsh I sped; 
And in the mire and rushes tangled there 

Fell, and beheld my life-blood float the plain.” 


Then said another: 


4“ That land.” The Marca d’ An- 
cona, between Romagna and Apulia, the 
kingdom of Charles of Anjou. 

5“ From thence I came.”’ Giacopo del 
Cassero, a citizen of Fano, who having 
spoken ill of Azzo da Este, Marquis of 

errara, was by his orders put to death. 
Giacopo was overtaken by the assassins 
at Oriaco, a place near the Brenta, from 
whence if he had fled toward Mira, 


“Ah! so may the wish, 


higher up on that river, instead of mak- 
ing for the marsh on the sea-shore, he 
might have escaped. 

8“ The blood.” Supposed to be the 
seat of life. 

7** Antenor’s land.”? The city of Pad- 
ua, said to be founded by Antenor. 
This implies a reflection on the Paduans, 
See “ Hell,” xxxii. 89. 


162 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That takes thee o’er the mountain, be fulfill’d, 
As thou shalt graciously give aid to mine. 

Of Montefeltro I; * Buonconte I: 

Giovanna ® nor none else have care for me; 


Sorrowing with these I therefore go.” 


I thus: 


“ From Campaldino’s field what force or chance 
Drew thee, that ne’er thy sepulture was known? ” 

“ Oh! ” answer’d he, “ at Casentino’s foot 
A stream there courseth, named Archiano, sprung 
In Apennine above the hermit’s seat,” 
E’en where its name is cancel’d,™ there came I, 
Pierced in the throat, fleeing away on foot, 


And bloodying the plain. 


Here sight and speech 


Fail’d me; and, finishing with Mary’s name, 
IT fell, and tenantless my flesh remain’d. 

I will report the truth; which thou again 
Tell to the living. Me God’s angel took, 


Whilst he of hell exclaim’d: 
’ Say wherefore hast thou robb’d me? 


‘O thou from heaven: 
Thou of him 


The eternal portion bear’st with thee away, 
For one poor tear that he deprives me of. 
But of the other, other rule I make.’ 
“Thou know’st how in the atmosphere collects 
That vapor dank, returning into water 
Soon as it mounts where cold condenses it. 
That evil will,!? which in his intellect 
Still follows evil, came; and raised the wind 
And smoky mist, by virtue of the power 
Given by his nature. Thence the valley, soon 
As day was spent, he cover’d o’er with cloud, 
From Pratomagno to the mountain range ;** 
And stretch’d the sky above; so that the air 


Impregnate changed to water. 


8° Of Montefeltro I.” Buonconte 
(son of Guido da Montefeltro, whom we 
have had in the 27th Canto of ‘ Hell,” 
fell in the battle of Campaldino (1289) 
fighting on the side of. the Aretini. In 
this engagement our Poet took. a dis- 
tinguished part, as we have seen related 
in his Life. 

®** Giovanna.” Either the wife, or a 
kinswoman of Buonconte. 

10 ** The hermit’s seat.”” The hermit- 
age of Camaldoli. ; 

11 “* Where its name is cancel’d.” That 


Fell the rain; 


is, between Bibbiena and Poppi, where 
the Archiano falls into the Arno, 

12° That evil will.’’ The devil. This 
notion of. the Evil. Spirit having power 
over the elements, appears to have 
arisen from his. being termed_ the 
“ prince of the air,” in. the New Testa- 
ment. 

18“° From Pratomagno to the moun- 
tain range.” From Pratomagno, now 
called Prato Vecchio (which divides the 
Valdarno from Casentino), as far as to 
the Apennines. 


PURGATORY 163" 


And to the fosses came:all that the land 
Contain’d not; and, as: mightiest streams are wont, 
To the great river, with such headlong sweep, 
Rush’d, that naught stay’d its course. My stiffen’d frame 
Laid at his mouth, the fell Archiano found, 
And dashed it into Arno; from my breast 
Loosening the cross, that of myself I made 
When overcome with pain. He hurl’d me on, 
Along the banks and bottom of his: course ; 
Then in his muddy spoils encircling wrapt:” 

“ Ah! when thou to the world shalt be return’d, 
And rested after thy long road,” so spake 
Next the third spirit ; “then remember me. 
I once was Pia.* Sienna gave me life; 
Maremma took it fronr me. That he knows, 
Who me with jewel’d ring had first espoused.” 


CANTO VI 


ARGUMENT.—Many besides; who are in like case with: those spoken: of 
in the last Canto, beseech our Poet to obtain. for them the prayers 
of their friends, when he shall be returned to this world. This 
moves him to express a doubt to his guide, how the dead can be 
profited by the prayers. of the living; for the solution of which 
doubt he is referred'to Beatrice. Afterward he meets with Sordello 
the Mantuan, whose: affection, shown. to. Virgil his countryman, 
leads Dante to break forth into an invective: against the unnatural 
divisions with which Italy, and more: especially Florence, was dis- 
tracted. 


HEN from their game of dice men separate, 
He who hath lost remains in sadness fix’d, 
Revolving in his mind what luckless throws 
He cast: but, meanwhile, all the company 
Go with the other; one before him runs, 
And one behind his mantle twitches; one. 
Fast by his side bids him remember: him. 
He stops not; and each one, to whom his hand 
Ts stretch’d, well knows he bids him stand aside; 
14“ Pia.” She is: said to have been: a husband, Nello della Pietra, of the same 


Siennese lady, of the family of Tolom- city, in Maremma, where he had some 
mei, secretly made away with by her possessions. 


164 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And thus? he from the press defends himself. 

E’en such was I in that close-crowding throng; 

And turning so my face around to all, 

And promising, I ’scaped from it with pains. 
Here of Arezzo him ? I saw, who fell 

By Ghino’s cruel arm; and him beside,’ 

Who in his chase was swallow’d by the stream. 

Here Frederic Novello * with his hand 

Stretch’d forth, entreated; and of Pisa he,® 

Who put the good Marzuco to such proof 

Of constancy. Count Orso ® I beheld; 

And from its frame a soul dismiss’d for spite 

And envy, as it said, but for no crime; 

I speak of Peter de la Brosse:’ and here, 

While she yet lives, that Lady of Brabant, 

Let her beware; lest for so false a deed 


She herd with worse than these. 


When I was freed 


From all those spirits, who pray’d for other’s prayers 
To hasten on their state of blessedness ; 


Straight I began: 


“O thou, my luminary! 


It seems expressly in thy text denied, 
That heaven’s supreme decree can ever bend 
To supplication; yet with this design 


1“ And thus.” It was usual for money 
to be given to bystanders at play by 
winners; and as is well remarked: 
** Dante is therefore describing, with his 
usual power of observation, what he 
had often seen, the shuffling, boon- 
denying exit of the successful games- 


2“ Of Arezzo him.’ Benincasa of 
Arezzo, eminent for his skill in juris- 
prudence, who having condemned to 
death Turrino da Turrita, brother of 
Ghino di Tacco, for his robberies in 
Maremma, was murdered by Ghino, in 
an apartment of his own house, in the 
presence of many witnesses. Ghino was 
not only suffered to escape in safety, 
but (as the commentators inform wus) 
obtained so high a reputation by the 
liberality with which he was accustomed 
to dispense the fruits of his plunder, 
and treated those who fell into his hands 
with so much courtesy, that he was after- 
ward invited to Rome, and knighted by 
Boniface VIII. } ; 

8 “* Him beside.’’ Cione, or Ciacco de’ 
Tarlatti of Arezzo. He is said to have 
been carried by his horse into the Arno, 
and there drowned, while he was in 
pursuit of certain of his enemies. 

4 Frederic Novello.” Son of the 


Conte Guido da Battifolle, and slain by 
one of the family of Bostoli. 

5“ Of Pisa he.” Farinata de’ Scorni- 
Sanh of Pisa. His father Marzuco, who 

ad entered the order of the Frati Mi- 
nori, so entirely overcame the feelings 
of resentment, that he even kissed the 
hands of the slayer of his son, and, as 
he was following the funeral, exhorted 
his kinsmen to reconciliation. 

6“ Count Orso.” Son of Napoleone 
da Cerbaia, slain by Alberto da Man- 
gona, his uncle. 

7 ** Peter de la Brosse.” Secretary of 
Philip III of France. The courtiers, en- 
while Biline high place which he held in 
the King’s favor, prevailed on Mary of 
Brabant to charge him falsely with an 
attempt upon her person; for which sup- 
posed crime he suffered death. So say 
the Italian commentators. Henault rep- 
resents the matter very differently: 
** Pierre de la Brosse, formerly barber 
to St. Louis, afterward the favorite of 
Philip, fearing the too great attachment 
of the King for his wife Mary, accuses 
this princess of having poisoned Louis, 
eldest son of Philip, by his first mar- 
riage. This calumny is discovered by 
a nun of Nivelle, in Flanders. ‘La 
Brosse is hanged.’ 


PURGATORY 165 


Do these entreat. Can then their hope be vain? 
Or is thy saying not to me reveal’d?” 

He thus tome: “ Both what I write is plain, 
And these deceived not in their hope; if well 
Thy mind consider, that the sacred height 
Of judgment doth not stoop, because love’s flame 
In a short moment all fulfils, which he, 

Who sojourns here, in right should satisfy. 
Besides, when I this point concluded thus, 

By praying no defect could be supplied; 
Because the prayer had none access to God. 
Yet in this deep suspicion rest thou not 
Contented, unless she assure thee so, 

Who betwixt truth and mind infuses light: 

I know not if thou take me right; I mean 
Beatrice. Her thou shalt behold above, 
Upon this mountain’s crown, fair seat of joy.” 


Then I: switi_let us mend our speed; for now 
i : and lo! the hill * 


Stretches its shadow far.” He answer’d thus: 
“ Our progress with this day shall be as much 
As we may now despatch; but otherwise 
Than thou supposest is the truth. For there 
Thou canst not be, ere thou once more behold 
Him back retutntig,; who behind the steep 

Is now so hidden, that, as erst, his beam 

Thou dost not break. But lo! a spirit there 
Stands solitary, and toward us looks: 

It will instruct us in the speediest way.” 

We soon approach’d it. O thou Lombard spirit! 
How didst thou stand, in high abstracted mood, 
Scarce moving with slow dignity thine eyes. 
It spoke not aught, but let us onward pass, 
Eying us as a lion on his watch. 

But Virgil, with entreaty mild, advanced, 
Requesting it to show the best ascent. 

It answer to his question none return’d; 

But of our country and our kind of life 
Demanded. When my courteous guide began, 


8“ The hill.” It was now past the noon. 


166 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“ Mantua,” the shadow, in itself absorb’d, 
Rose toward us from the place in which it stood, 
And cried, ‘“ Mantuan! I am thy countryman, 


Sordello.” ® 


Each the other then embraced. 


; slavish Italy! thou inn of grief! 

Vessel without a pilot in loud storm! 
Lady no longer of fair provinces, 
But brothel-house impure! this gentle spirit, 
Even from the pleasant sound of his dear land 
Was prompt to greet a fellow-citizen 
With such glad cheer: while now thy living ones 
In thee abide not without war; and one 
Malicious gnaws another; ay, of those 
Whom the same wall and the same moat contains. 
Seek, wretched one! around the sea-coasts wide; 
Then homeward to thy bosom turn; and mark, 
If any part of thee sweet peace enjoy. 
What boots it, that thy reins Justinian’s hand 
Refitted, if thy saddle be unprest ? 
Naught doth he now but aggravate thy shame. 
Ah, people! thou obedient still should’st live, 
And in the saddle let thy Cesar sit, 
If well thou marked’st that which God commands. 

Look how that beast to fellness hath relapsed, 
From having lost correction of the spur, 
Since to the bridle thou hast set thine hand, 
O German Albert !?° who abandon’st her 
That is grown savage and unmanageable, 
When thou shouldst clasp her flanks with forked heels, 
Just judgment from the stars fall on thy blood; 
And be it strange and manifest to all; 
Such as may strike thy successor ™ with dread; 
For that thy sire ** and thou have suffer’d thus, 
Through greediness of yonder realms detain’d, 


9“ Sordello.” The history of Sordel- 
lo’s life is wrapt in the obscurity of ro- 
mance. That he distinguished himself 
by his skill in Provencal poetry is cer- 
tain; and many feats of military prow- 
ess have been attributed to him. It is 
probable that he was born toward the 
end of the twelfth, and died about the 
middle of the succeeding, century. 

10*°Q German Albert!” The Em- 
peror Albert I succeeded Adolphus in 


1298, and was murdered in 1308 See 
** Paradise,” Canto xix. 114. P 

11“ Thy successor.’’ The successor of 
Albert was Henry of Luxemburg, by 
whose interposition in the affairs of Italy 
our Poet hoped to have been reinstated 
in his native city. 

12“ Thy sire.” The Emperor Rodolph, 
too intent on increasing his power in 
Germany to give much of his thoughts 
to Italy, ‘“‘ the garden of the empire.” 


PURGATORY 


167 


The garden of the empire to run waste. 

Come, see the Capulets and Montagues.* 

The Filippeschi and Monaldi,™* ‘man 

Who carest for naught! those sunk in grief, and these 


With dire suspicion rack’d. 


Come, cruel one! 


Come, and behold the oppression of the nobles, 
And mark their injuries; and thou mayst see 
What safety Santafiore can supply.’® 

Come and behold thy Rome, who calls on thee, 
Desolate widow, day and night with moans, 
“My Cesar, why dost thou desert my side?” 
Come, and behold what love among thy people: 
And if no pity touches thee for us, 


Come, and blush for thine own report. 


For me, 


If it be lawful, O Almighty Power! 

Who wast in earth for our sakes crucified, 
Are thy just eyes turn’d elsewhere? or is this 
A preparation, in the wondrous depth 

Of thy sage counsel made, for some good end, 
Entirely from our reach of thought cut off? 
So are the Italian cities all o’erthrong’d 

With tyrants, and a great Marcellus made 

Of every petty factious villager. 

My Florence! thou mayst well remain unmoved 
At this digression, which affects not thee: 
Thanks to thy people, who so wisely speed. 
Many have justice in their heart, that long 
Waiteth, for counsel to direct the bow, 

Or ere it dart unto its aim: but thine 


Have it on their lips’ edge. 


Many refuse 


To bear the common burdens: readier thine 
Answer uncall’d, and cry, “ Behold I stoop!” 

Make thyself glad, for thou hast reason now, 
Thou wealthy! thou at peace! thou wisdom-fraught! 
Facts best will witness if I speak the truth. 

Athens and Lacedemon, who of old 


18“* Capulets and Montagues.” Our 
ears are so familiarized to the names of 
these rival houses in the language of 
Shakespeare, that I have used them in- 
stead of the ‘‘ Montecchi” and “ Cap- 


pe They were two powerful 
hibelline families of Verona. 

14“ Filippeschi_ and Monaldi.” Two 
other rival families in Orvieto. 

15 ‘* What safety Santafiore can sup- 
ply.” <A place between Pisa and Sienna. 


168 THE DIVINE COMEDY, 


Enacted laws, for civil arts renown’d, 

Made little progress in improving life 

Toward thee, who usest such nice subtlety, 

That to the middle of November scarce 

Reaches the thread thou in October weavest. 

How many times within thy memory, 

Customs, and laws, and coins, and offices 

Have been by thee renew’d, and people changed. 
If thou remember’st well and canst see clear, 

Thou wilt perceive thyself like a sick wretch, 

Who finds no rest upon her down, but oft 

Shifting her side, short respite seeks from pain. 


CANTO VII 


ARGUMENT.—The approach of night hindering further ascent, Sordello 
conducts our Poet apart to an eminence, from whence they behold 
a pleasant recess, in form of a flowery valley, scooped out of the 
mountain; where are many famous spirits, and among them the 
Emperor Rodolph, Ottocar, King of Bohemia, Philip III of France, 
Henry of Navarre, Peter III of Arragon, Charles I of Naples, 
Henry III. of England, and William, Marquis of Montferrat. 


FTER their courteous greetings joyfully 
Seven times exchanged, Sordello backward drew 
Exclaiming, “Who are ye?” “ Before this mount 
By spirits worthy of ascent to God 
Was sought, my bones had by Octavius’ care 
Been buried. I am Virgil; for no sin 
Deprived of heaven, except for lack of faith.” 
So answer’d him in few my gentle guide. 
As one, who aught before him suddenly 
Beholding, whence his wonder riseth, cries, 
“Tt is, yet is not,” wavering in belief; 
Such he appear’d; then downward bent his eyes, 
And, drawing near with reverential step, 
Caught him, where one of mean estate might clasp 
His lord. “Glory of Latium!” he exclaim’d, 
“In whom our tongue its utmost power display’d; 
Boast of my honor’d birth-place! what desert 


RURGATORY 169 


Of mine, what favor, rather, undeserved, 
Shows thee to me? If I to hear that voice 
Am worthy, say if from below thou comest, 
And from what cloister’s pale.” “ Through every orb 
Of that sad region,” he replied, “thus far 
Am I arrived, by heavenly influence led: 
And with such aid I come. Not for my doing, 
- But for not doing, have I lost the sight 
Of that high Sun, whom thou desirest, and who 
By me too late was known. There is a place? 
There underneath, not made by torments sad, 
But by dun shades alone; where mourning’s voice 
Sounds not of anguish sharp, but breathes in sighs. 
There I with little innocents abide, 
Who by death’s fangs were bitten, ere exempt 
From human taint. There I with those abide, 
Who the three holy virtues? put not on, 
But understood the rest,? and without blame 
Follow’d them all. But, if thou know’st, and canst, 
_ Direct us how we soonest may arrive, 
Where Purgatory its true beginning takes.” 
He answer’d thus: ‘“ We have no certain place 
- Assign’d us: upward I may go, or round. 
Far as I can, I join thee for thy guide. 
But thou beholdest now how day declines; 
And upward to proceed by night, our power 
Excels: therefore it may be well to choose 
A place of pleasant sojourn. ‘To the right 
Some spirits sit apart retired. If thou 
Consentest, I to these will lead thy steps: 
And thou wilt know them, not without delight.” 
“How chances this?’ was answer’d: “ whoso wish’d 
To ascend by night, would he be thence debarr’d 
By other, or through his own weakness fail?” 
The good Sordello then, along the ground 
Trailing his finger, spoke: ‘ Only this line 
Thou shalt not overpass, soon as the sun 
1“*There is a place.’”?’ Limbo. See 3“ The rest.”” Prudence, Justice, For: 
** Hell,”? Canto iv. titude, and Temperance. 


24. 
3“ The three holy virtues.” Faith, 
Hope, and Charity. 


170 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Hath disappear’d; not that aught else impedes 
Thy going upward, save the shades of night. 
These, with the want of power, perplex the will. 
With them thou haply mightst return beneath, 

Or to and fro around the mountain’s side 
Wander, while day is in the horizon shut.” 

My master straight, as wondering at his speech, 
Exclaim’d: “ Then lead us quickly, where thou sayst 
That, while we stay, we may enjoy delight.” 

A little space we were removed from thence, 
When I perceived the mountain hollow’d out, 
Even as large valleys hollow’d out on earth. 

“That way,” the escorting spirit cried, “ we go, 
Where in a bosom the high bank recedes: 

And thou await renewal of the day.” 

Betwixt the steep and plain, a crooked path 
Led us traverse into the ridge’s side, 

Where more than half the sloping edge expires. 
Refulgent gold, and silver thrice refined, 

And scarlet grain and ceruse, Indian wood 
Of lucid dye serene, fresh emeralds 

But newly broken, by the herbs and flowers 
Placed in that fair recess, in color all 

Had been surpass’d, as great surpasses less. 
Nor nature only there lavish’d her hues, 

But of the sweetness of a thousand smells 

A rare and undistinguish’d fragrance made. 

“Salve Regina,”’* on the grass and flowers, 
Here chanting, I beheld those spirits sit, 

Who not beyond the valley could be seen. 

“ Before the westering sun sink to his bed,” 
Began the Mantuan, who our steps had turn’d, 
“°’Mid those, desire not that I lead ye on. 

For from this eminence ye shall discern 
Better the acts and visages of all, 

Than, in the nether vale, among them mix’d. 
He, who sits high above the rest, and seems 
To have neglected that he should have done, 
And to the others’ song moves not his lip, 


4“ Salve Regina.” The beginning of a prayer to the Virgin. 


PURGATORY 


171 


The Emperor Rodolph call, who might have heal’d 

The wounds whereof fair Italy hath died, 

So that by others she revives but slowly. 

He, who with kindly visage comforts him, 

Sway’d in that country,® where the water springs, 

That Moldaw’s river to the Elbe, and Elbe 

Rolls to the ocean: Ottocar® his name: 

Who in his swaddling-clothes was of more worth 

Than Wenceslaus his son, a bearded man, 

Pamper’d with rank luxuriousness and ease, 

And that one with the nose deprest,’ who close 

In counsel seems with him of gentle look,® 

Flying, expired, withering the lily’s flower. 

Look there, how he doth knock against his breast. 

The other ye behold, who for his cheek 

Makes of one hand a couch, with frequent signs. 

They are the father and the father-in-law 

Of Gallia’s bane:® his vicious life they know 

And foul; thence comes the grief that rends them thus. 
“ He, so robust of limb,?® who measure keeps 

In song with him of feature prominent,” 

With every virtue bore his girdle braced. 

And if that stripling,’* who behind him sits, 


8“ That country.” Bohemia. 

§** Ottocar’’ King of Bohemia, who 
was killed in the battle of Marchfield, 
fought with Rodolph, August 26, 1278, 
Wencesliaus II, his son, who succeeded 
him in the Kingdom of Bohemia, died 
in 1305. The latter is again taxed with 
luxury in the ‘* Paradise,’’ xix. 123. 

7*“That one with the nose deprest,’”’ 
Philip III, of France, father of Philip 
IV. He died in 1285, at Perpignan, in 
his retreat from Arragon. 

8“ Him of gentle look.” Henry of 
Navarre, father’ of Jane married to 
Philip IV, of France, whom Dante calls 
**mal di Francia.’’—‘“‘ Gallia’s bane.” 

® “ Gallia’s bane.” G. Villani, lib. vii. 
cap. cxlvi. ce with equal resentment 
of Philip IV. ‘ In 1291, on the night of 
the calends of May, Philip le Bel, King 
of France, by advice of Biccio and Mus- 
ciatto Franzesi, ordered all the Italians, 
who were in his country and realm, to 
be seized, under pretence of seizing the 
money-lenders, but thus he caused the 
good merchants also to be seized and 
ransomed; for which he was much 
blamed and held in great abhorrence. 
And from thenceforth the realm of 
France fell evermore into degradation 
and decline. And it is observable that 


between the taking of Acre and this 
seizure in France, the merchants of 
Florence received great damage and 
ruin of their property.” 

10 * He, so robust of limb.” Peter 
III, called the Great, King of Arragon, 
who died in 1285, leaving four sons, 
Alonzo, James, Frederick, and Peter. 
The two former succeeded him in the 
Kingdom of Arragon, and Frederick in 
that of Sicily. 

11 “* Him of feature prominent.’’ ‘* Dal 
maschio naso’”’—‘ with the masculine 
nose.” Charles I, King of Naples, 
Count of Anjou, and brother of St. 

ouis. He died in 1284. The annalist 
of Florence remarks that “there had 
been no sovereign of the house of 
France, since the time of Charlemagne, 
by whom Charles was surpassed either 
in military renown and prowess, or in 
the loftiness of his understanding.” 

12 ** That stripling.’’ Either (as the 
old commentators suppose) Alonzo III, 
King of Arragon, the eldest son of Peter 
III, who died in 12091, at the age of 27; 
or, according to Venturi, Peter the 
youngest son. The former was a youn 
prince of virtue sufficient to have justi- 
fied the eulogium and the hopes of 
Dante. 


172 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


King after him had lived, his virtue then 

From vessel to like vessel had been pour’d; 
Which may not of the other heirs be said. 

By James and Frederick his realms are held; 
Neither the better heritage obtains. 

Rarely into the branches of the tree 

Doth human worth mount up: and so ordains 
He who bestows it, that as his free gift 

It may be call’d. To Charles*® my words apply 
No less than to his brother in the song; 

Which Pouille and Provenge now with grief confess. 
So much that plant degenerates from its seed, 
As, more than Beatrix and Margaret, 
Costanza** still boasts of her valorous spouse. 

“ Behold the King of simple life and plain, 

Harry of England,’ sitting there alone: 

He through his branches better issue*® spreads. 

“That one, who, on the ground, beneath the rest, 

Sits lowest, yet his gaze directs aloft, 

Is William, that brave Marquis,” for whose cause, 
The deed of Alexandria and his war 

Makes Montferrat and Canavese weep.” 


18 “To Charles.” ‘Al Nausto’’— 
* Charles II, King of Naples, is no less 
inferior to his father, Charles I, than 

aus and Frederick to theirs, Peter 


14 “* Costanza.”? Widow of Peter ITI. 
She has been already mentioned in the 
third Canto, v. 112. By Beatrix and 
Margaret are tebe meant two of the 
daughters of Raymond Berenger, Count 
of Provence; the latter married to St. 
Louis of France, the former to his 
brother Charles of Anjou, King of 
Naples. See “ Paradise,’’ Canto vi. 135. 
Dante therefore considers Peter as the 
most illustrious of the three monarchs. 

15 “* Harry of England.” Henry III. 
The contemporary annalist speaks of 
this King in similar terms. G. Villani, 
lib. v. cap. iv. ‘‘ From Richard was born 


Henry, who reigned after him, who was 
a plain man and of good faith, but of 
little courage.” 

16 “* Better issue.”” Edward I, of 
whose glory our Poet was perhaps a wit- 
ness, in his visit to England. ‘‘ From 
the said Henry was born the good King 
Edward, who reigns in our times, who 
has done great things, whereof we shall 
make mention in due place.”—G. Villani, 


ibid. 

17 “ William, that brave Marquis.” 
William, Marquis of Montferrat, was 
treacherously seized re his own sub- 
jects, at Alessandria in Lombardy, A. D. 
1290, and ended his life in prison. 
war ensued between the people of Ales- 
sandria and those of Montferrat and the 
Canavese, now part of Piedmont. 


PURGATORY 173. 


CANTO VIII 


ARGUMENT.—T wo angels, with flaming swords broken at the points, 
descend to keep watch over the valley, into which Virgil and Dante 
entering by desire of Sordello, our Poet meets with joy the spirit 
of Nino, the judge of Gallura. one who was well known to him. 
Meantime three exceedingly bright stars appear near the pole, and 
a serpent creeps subtly into the valley, but flees at hearing the ap- 
proach of those angelic guards. Lastly, Conrad Malaspina predicts 
to our Poet his future banishment. 


OW was the hour that wakens fond desire 
N In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart 
Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell, 
And pilgrim newly on his road with love 
Thrills, if he hear the vesper bell from far, 
That seems to mourn for the expiring day: 
When I, no longer taking heed to hear, 
Began, with wonder, from those spirits to mark 
One risen from its seat, which with its hand 
Audience implored. Both palms it join’d and raised, 
Fixing its steadfast gaze toward the east, 
As telling God, “I care for naught beside.” 
“Te Lucis Ante,”’? so devoutly then 
Came from its lip, and in so soft a strain, 
That all my sense in ravishment was lost. 
And the rest after, softly and devout, 
Follow’d through all the hymn, with upward gaze 
Directed to the bright supernal wheels. 
Here, reader! for the truth make thine eyes keen: 
For of so subtle texture is this veil, 
That thou with ease mayst pass it through unmark’d, 
IT saw that gentle band silently next 
Look up, as if in expectation held, 
Pale and in lowly guise; and, from on high, 
I saw, forth issuing descend beneath, 
Two angels, with two flame-illumined swords, 
Broken and mutilated of their points. 
Green as the tender leaves but newly born, 


1 “Te Lucis Ante.” “Te lucis ante in the last part of the sacred office 
terminum,”’ says Lombardi, is the first termed ‘‘ compieta,” a. service which our 
verse of the hymn sung by the Church Chaucer calls ‘“‘complin. 


«74 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Their vesture was, the which, by wings as green 
Beaten, they drew behind them, fann’d in air. 
A little over us one took his stand; 
The other lighted on the opposing hill; 
So that the troop were in the midst contain’d. 
Well I descried the whiteness on their heads; 
But in their visages the dazzled eye 
Was lost, as faculty that by too much 
Is overpower’d. “ From Mary’s bosom both 
Are come,” exclaim’d Sordello, “as a guard 
Over the vale, ’gainst him, who hither tends, 
The serpent.” Whence, not knowing by which path 
He came, I turn’d me round; and closely press’d, 
All frozen, to my leader’s trusted side. 
Sordello paused not: “To the valley now 
(For it is time) let us descend; and hold 
Converse with those great shadows: haply much 
Their sight may please ye.” Only three steps down 
Methinks I measured, ere I was beneath, 
And noted one who look’d as with desire 
To know me. Time was now that air grew dim; 
Yet not so dim, that, ’twixt his eyes and mine, 
It clear’d not up what was conceal’d before. 
Mutually toward each other we advanced. 
Nino, thou courteous judge! ? what joy I felt, 
When I perceived thou wert not with the bad. 
No salutation kind on either part 
Was left unsaid. He then inquired: “ How long, 
Since thou arrived’st at the mountain’s foot, 
Over the distant waves?” “Oh!” answer’d I, 
“ Through the sad seats of woe this morn I came; 
And still in my first life, thus journeying on, 
The other strive to gain.’ Soon as they heard 
My words, he and Sordello backward drew, 
As suddenly amazed. To Virgil one, 
The other to a spirit’ turn’d, who near 
Was seated, crying: “ Conrad!* up with speed: 
Come, see what of his grace high God hath will’d.” 


2 Nino, thou courteous judge.” 3“ Conrad.’? Conrado, father to Mare 
Nino di Gallura de’ Visconti, nephew. to cello Malaspina. 
Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi, and 
betrayed by him. 


PURGATORY 


Then turning round to me: 


L7G. 


“ By that rare mark 


Of honor, which thou owest to him, who hides 
So deeply his first cause it hath no ford; 
When thou shalt be beyond the vast of waves, 
Tell my Giovanna,* that for me she call 
There, where reply to innocence is made. 
Her mother,® I believe, loves me no more; 
Since she has changed the white and wimpled folds,® 
Which she is doom’d once more with grief to wish. 
By her it easily may be perceived, 
How long in woman lasts the flame of love, 
If sight and touch do not relume it oft. 
For her so fair a burial will not make 
The viper,’ which calls Milan to the field, 
As had been made by shrill Gallura’s bird.’’® 

He spoke, and in his visage took the stamp 
Of that right zeal, which with due ternperature 
Glows in the bosom. My insatiate eyes 
Meanwhile to heaven had travel’d, even there 
Where the bright stars are slowest, as a wheel 
Nearest the axle; when my guide inquired: 
“What there aloft, my son, has caught thy gaze?”’ 


I answer’d: 
The pole is all on fire.” 


“The three torches,? with which here 
He then to me: 


“The four resplendent stars, thou saw’st this morn, 
Are there beneath; and these, risen in their stead.” 
While yet’ he spoke, Sordello to himself 


Drew him, and cried: 


“Lo there our enemy! ” 


And with his hand pointed that way to look. 
Along the side, where barrier none arose 
Around the little vale, a serpent lay, 


#“My Giovanna.” The daughter of 
Nino, and wife of Riccardo da Camino, 
of Trevigi. 

5“ Her mother.” Beatrice, Marchion- 
ess of Este, wife of Nino, and after his 
death married to Galeazzo de’ Visconti 
of Milan. : 

8“ The white and wimpled folds.’’ 
The weeds of widowhood. 

1“ The viper.” The arms of Galeazzo 
and the ensign of the Milanese. 

8“ Shrill Gallura’s bird.’”’ The cock 
was the ensign of Gallura, Nino’s prov- 
ince in Sardinia. It is not known 
whether Beatrice had any further cause 
to regret her nuptials with Galeazzo, 


than a certain shame which appears, 
however unreasonably, to have attached 
to a second marriage. 

®“ The three torches.” The three 
evangelical virtues, Faith, Hope, and 
Charity. These are supposed to rise in 
the evening, in order to denote their_be- 
longing to the contemplative; as the four 
others, which are made to rise in the 
morning, were probably intended to sig- 
nify that the cardinal virtues belong 
to the active life: or perhaps it may 
mark the succession, in order of time 
of the Gospel to the heathen system of 
morality. 


_.176 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food. 
Between the grass and flowers, the evil snake 
Came on, reverting oft his lifted head; 
And, as a beast that smooths its polish’d coat, 


Licking his back. 


I saw not, nor can tell, 


How those celestial falcons from their seat 
Moved, but in motion each one well descried. 
Hearing the air cut by their verdant plumes, 
The serpent fled; and, to their stations, back 
The angels up return’d with equal flight. 

The spirit (who to Nino, when he call’d, 
Had come), from viewing me with fixed ken, 
Through all that conflict, loosen’d not his sight. 

“So may the lamp, which leads thee up on high, 
Find, in thy free resolve, of wax so much, 

As may suffice thee to the enamel’d height,” 


It thus began: 


“If any certain news 


Of Valdimagra and the neighbor part 

Thou know’st, tell me, who once was mighty there, 
They call’d me Conrad Malaspina; not 

That old one;?° but from him I sprang. The love 
I bore my people is now here refined.” 

“Tn your domains,’ I answer’d, “ne’er was I. 
But, through all Europe, where do those men dwell, 
To whom their glory is not manifest? 

The fame, that honors your illustrious house, 
Proclaims the nobles, and proclaims the land; 
So that he knows it, who was never there. 

I swear to you, so may my upward route 
Prosper, your honored nation not impairs 

The value of her coffer and her sword. 

Nature and use give her such privilege, 

That while the world is twisted from his course 
By a bad head, she only walks aright, 


And has the evil way in scorn.” 


He then: 


“ Now pass thee on: seven times the tired sun 12 


10“* That old one.’? An ancestor of 
Conrado Malaspina, who was also of that 
name. 

11 “ Seven times the tired sun.”’ “‘ The 
sun shall not enter into the constellation 
of Aries seven times more, before thou 
shalt have still better cause for the good 


opinion thou expressest of Valdimagra, 
in the kind reception thou shalt there 
meet with.’”’ Dante was hospitably re- 
ceived by the Marchese Marcello, or 
Morello Malaspina, during his banish- 
ment, A. D. 1307. 


PURGATORY 


177 


Revisits not the couch, which with four feet 

The forked Aries covers, ere that kind 

Opinion shall be nail’d into thy brain 

With stronger nails than other’s speech can drive; 
If the sure course of judgment be not stay’d.” 


CANTO IX 


ARGUMENT.—Dante is carried up the mountain, asleep and dreamin 
dy Lucia; and, on wakening, finds himself, two hours after sun- 
rise, with Virgil, near the gate of Purgatory, through which they, 


are admitted by the angel deputed by St. Peter to keep it. 


OW the fair consort of Tithonus old, 

Arisen from her mate’s beloved arms, 

Look’d palely o’er the eastern cliff; her brow, 
Lucent with jewels, glitter’d, set in sign 
Of that chill animal,’ who with his train 
Smites fearful nations: and where then we were, 
Two steps of her ascent the night had past; 
And now the third was closing up its wing,? 
When I, who had so much of Adam with me, 
Sank down upon the grass, o’ercome with sleep, 


There where all five*® were seated. 


In that hour, 


When near the dawn the swallow her sad lay, 
Remembering haply ancient grief,* renews; 

And when our minds, more wanderers from the flesh, 
And less\by thought restrain’d, are, as ’t were, full 
Of holy divination in their dreams; 

Then, in a vision, did I seem to view 

A golden-feather’d eagle in the sky, 

With open wings, and hovering for descent; 

And I was in that place, methought, from whence 
Young Ganymede, from his associates ’reft, 

Was snatch’d aloft to the high consistory. 


1“ Of that chill animal.” The scor- 
pion. : 

2‘ The third was closing up its wing.” 
The night being divided into four 
watches, I think he may mean that the 
third was past, and the fourth and last 
was begun, so that there might be some 
faint glimmering of morning twilight ; 
and not merely, as Lombardi supposes, 


that the third watch was drawing toward 
its close, which would still leave an in- 
surmountable difficulty in the first verse. 
3¢ All five.” Virgil, Dante, Sordello, 
Nino, and Conrado Malaspina. ; 

4“ Remembering haply ancient grief.” 
Progne having been changed into a 
swallow after the outrage done her by 
Tereus. 


178 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“Perhaps,” thought I within me, “here alone 
He strikes his quarry, and elsewhere disdains 
To pounce upon the prey.” Therewith, it seem’d, 
A little wheeling in his aery tour, 

Terrible as the lightning, rush’d he down, 

And snatch’d me upward, even to the fire. 

There both, I thought, the eagle and myself 

Did burn; and so intense the imagined flames, 
“That needs my sleep was broken off. As efst 
“Achilles shook himself, and round~him roll’d 
His waken’d eyeballs, wondering where he was, 
Whenas his mother had from Chiron fled 

To Scyros, with him sleeping in her arms; 

(There whence the Greeks did after sunder him); 
E’en thus I shook me, soon as from my face 
The slumber parted, turning deadly pale, 

Like one ice-struck with dread. Sole at my side 
My comfort stood: and the bright sun was now 
More than two hours aloft: and to the sea 

My looks were turn’d. “ Fear not,’ my master cried, 
“ Assured we are at happy point. Thy strength 
Shrink not, but rise dilated. Thou art come 
To Purgatory now. Lo! there the cliff 

That circling bounds it. Lo! the entrance there, 
Where it doth seem disparted. Ere the dawn 
Usher’d the day-light, when thy wearied soul 
Slept in thee, o’er the flowery vale beneath 


A_lady came, and thus bespake me: ‘I 

Am er_ me to take this man, 

Who slumbers. Easier _s ay~shall speed.’ 
‘Sordello-and the other gentle shapes 


Tarrying, she bare thee up: and, as day shone, 

This summit reach’d: and I pursued her steps. 

Here did she place thee. First, her lovely eyes 

That open entrance show’d me; then at once 

She vanish’d with thy sleep.” Like one, whose doubts 
Are chased by certainty, and terror turn’d 

To comfort on discovery of the truth, 

Such was the change in me: and as my guide 

Beheld me fearless, up along the cliff 


PURGATORY 4199 


He moved, and I behind him, toward the height. 
Reader! thou markest how my theme doth rise; 
Nor wonder therefore, if more artfully 
I prop the structure. Nearer now we drew, 
Arrived whence, in that part, where first a breach 
As of a wall appear’d, I could descry 
A portal, and three steps beneath, that led 
For inlet there, of different color each; 
And one who watch’d, but spake not yet a word. 
As more and more mine eye did stretch its view, 
I mark’d him seated on the highest step, 
Tn visage such, as past my power to bear. 
Grasp’d in his hand, a naked sword glanced back 
The rays so toward me, that I oft in vain 
My sight directed. “Speak, from whence ye stand; ” 
He cried: “ What would ye? Where is your escort? 
Take heed your coming upward harm ye not.” 
“A heavenly dame, not skilless of these things,” 
Replied the instructor, “told us, even now. 
‘Pass that way: here the gate is.’” *‘* And may she, 
Befriending, prosper your ascent,’ resumed 
The courteous keeper of the gate: ‘‘ Come then 
Before our steps.” We straightway thither came. 
The lowest stair® was marble white, so smooth 
And polish’d, that therein my mirror’d form 
Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark 
Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block, 
Crack’d lengthwise and across. The third, that lay 
Massy above, seem’d porphyry, that flamed 
Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein. 
On this God’s angel either foot sustain’d, 
Upon the threshold seated, which appear’d 
A rock of diamond. Up the trinal steps 
“ With humble > that he unbar the bolt.” 
Pious T eet devolved 
I cast me, praying him for pity’s sake 
5 ** The lowest stair.”” By the white one, his contrition on their account; and 
step is meant the distinctness with which by that of porphyry, the fervor with 


the conscience of the penitent reflects | which he resolves on the future pursuit 
his offences; by the burnt and cracked of piety and virtue. 


180 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That he would open to me; but first. fell : 


Thrice on my bosom prostrate. Se 


times® 


The letter, that denotes the inward stain,/P) 

Of his drawn sword, inscribed. And ‘“ Look,” he cried, 

“When enter’d, that thou wash these scars away.” 
Ashes, or earth ta’en dry out of the ground, 

Were of one color with the robe he wore. 

From underneath that vestment forth he drew 

Two keys,’ of metal twain: the one was gold, 


Its fellow silver. 


e blunted point 


With the pallid first, 


And next the burnish’d, he so ply’d the gate, 


As to content me well. 


“‘ Whenever one 


Faileth of these, that in the key-hole straight 
It turn not, to this alley then expect 


Access in vain.” 


Such were the words he spake. 


“One is more precious:® but the other needs, 
Skill and sagacity, large share of each, 

Ere its good task to disengage the knot 

Be worthily perform’d. From Peter these 

I hold, of him instructed that I err 

Rather in opening, than in keeping fast; 

So but the suppliant at my feet implore.” 

Then of that hallow’d gate he thrust the door, 
Exclaiming, “Enter, but this warning hear: 
He forth again departs who looks behind.” 

As in the hinges of that sacred ward 
The swivels turn’d, sonorous metal strong, 
Harsh was the grating; nor so surlily 
Roar’d the Tarpeian, when by force bereft 
Of good Metellus, thenceforth from his loss 
To leanness doom’d. Attentively I turn’d, 
Listening the thunder that first issued forth; 
And “ We praise thee, O God,’’ methought I heard, 


© “ Semen tl Mes.” AUC. AS to de- 
the seven sins (Peccata) 6 
he was tO™be-elearset int” hi 


Ss passage 
through Purgatory. 

7™“ Two keys.” Lombardi remarks 
that painters have usually drawn 
St. Peter with two keys, the one of 
gold and the other of silver; but that 
Niccolo Alemanni, in his ‘‘ Dissertation 
de Parietinis Lateranensibus,”’ produces 


instances of his being represented with 
one key, and with three. e have here, 
however, not St. Peter, but an angel 
deputed by him. 

8 “One is more precious.” The gold- 
en key denotes the divine authority by - 
which the priest absolves the sinners; 
the silver expresses the learning and 
judgment requisite for the due discharge 
of that office. 


PURGATORY 181 


In accents blended with sweet melody. 

The strains came o’er mine ear, e’en as the sound 
Of choral voices, that in solemn chant 

With organ® mingle, and, now high and clear 
Come swelling, now float indistinct away. 


CANTO X 


ARGUMENT.—Being admitted at the gate of Purgatory, our Poets ascend 
a winding path up the rock, till they reach an open and level space 
that extends each way round the mountain. On the side that rises, 
and which is of white marble, are seen artfully engraven many 
stories of humility, which whilst they are contemplating, there ap- 
approach the souls of those who expiate the sin of pride, and who 
are bent down beneath the weight of heavy stones. 


HEN we had passed the threshold of the gate 
(Which the soul’s ill affection doth disuse, 
Making the crooked seem the straighter path), 

I heard its closing sound. Had mine eyes turn’d, 
For that offence what plea might have avail’d? 

We mounted up the riven rock, that wound 
On either side alternate, as the wave 
Flies and advances. ‘“ Here some little art 
Behoves us,” said my leader, “that our steps 
Observe the varying flexure of the path.” 

Thus we so slowly sped, that with cleft orb 
The moon once more o’erhangs her watery couch, 
Ere we that strait have threaded. But when free, 
We came, and open, where the mount above 
One solid mass retires; I spent with toil, 
And both uncertain of the way, we stood, 
Upon a plain more lonesome than the roads 
That traverse desert wilds. From whence the brink 
Borders upon vacuity, to foot 
Of the steep bank that rises still, the space 
Had measured thrice the stature of a man: 
And, distant as mine eye could wing its flight, 
®“ Organ.” Organs were used in in the Emperor Julian’s writings, which 


Italy as early as in the sixth century. shows that the organ was not unknown 
If I remember rightly there is a passage in his time. 


Classies. Vol. 34—I 


182 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To leftward now and now to right despatch’d, 
That cornice equal in extent appear’d. 

Not yet our feet had on that summit moved, 
When I discover’d that the bank, around, 

Whose proud uprising all ascent denied, 

Was marble white, aud so exactly wrought 
With quaintest sculpture, that not there alone 
Had Polycletus, but e’en nature’s self 

Been shamed. The angel (who came down to earth 
With tidings of the peace so many years 

Wept for in vain, that oped the heavenly gates 
From their long interdict) before us seem’d, 

In a sweet act, so sculptured to the life, 

He look’d no silent image. One had sworn 

He had said “ Hail!” for she was imaged there, 
By whom the key did open to God’s love; 

And in her act as sensibly imprest 

That word, “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” 
As figure seal’d on wax. “ Fix not thy mind 

On one place only,” said the guide beloved, 
Who had me near him on that part where lies 
The heart of man. My sight forthwith I turn’d, 
And mark’d, behind the virgin mother’s form, 
Upon that side where he that moved me stood, 
Another story graven on the rock. 

I pass’d athwart the bard, and drew me near, 
That it might stand more aptly for my view. 
There, in the self-same marble, were engraved 
The cart and kine, drawing the sacred ark, 

That from unbidden office awes mankind. 
Before it came much people; and the whole 
Parted in seven quires. One sense cried “ Nay,” 
Another, ‘“ Yes, they sing.” Like doubt arose 
Betwixt the eye and smell, from the curl’d fume 
Of incense breathing up the well-wrought toil. 
Preceding the blest vessel, onward came, 

With light dance leaping, girt in humble guise, 
Israel’s sweet harper: in that hap he seem’d 
Less, and yet more, than kingly. Opposite, 

At a great palace, from the lattice forth 


PURGATORY 183 


Look’d Michol, like a lady full of scorn 
_ And sorrow. To behold the tablet next, 
Which, at the back of Michol, whitely shone, 
I moved me. There, was storied on the rock 
The exalted glory of the Roman prince, 
Whose mighty worth moved Gregory? to earn 
His mighty conquest, Trajan the Emperor. 
A widow at his bridle stood, attired 
In tears and mourning. Round about them troop’d 
Full throng of knights; and overhead in gold 
The eagles floated, struggling with the wind. 
The wretch appear’d amid all these to say: 
“Grant vengeance, Sire! for, woe beshrew this heart, 
My son is murder’d.” He replying seem’d: 
“Wait now till I return.” And she, as one 
Made hasty by her grief: “O Sire! if thou 
Dost not return?” “‘ Where I am, who then is, 
May right thee.” ‘ What to thee is other’s gooa, 
If thou neglect thy own?” “ Now comfort thee; ” 
At length he answers. “It beseemeth well 
My duty be perform’d, ere I move hence: 
So justice wills; and pity bids me stay.” 
He, whose ken nothing new surveys, produced 
That visible speaking, new to us and strange, 
The like not found on earth. Fondly I gazed 
. Upon those patterns of meek humbleness, 
Shapes yet more precious for their artist’s sake; 
When “Lo!” the poet whisper’d, “where this way 
(But slack their pace) a multitude advance. 
These to the lofty steps shall guide us on.” 
Mine eyes, though bent on view of novel sights, 
Their loved allurement, were not slow to turn. 
Reader! I would not that amazed thou miss 
Of thy good purpose, hearing how just God 
Decrees our debts be cancel’d. Ponder not 
~The form of suffering. Think on what succeeds: 
Think that, at worst, beyond the mighty doom 
It cannot pass. “Instructor!” I began, 


1“ Gregory.” St. Gregory’s prayers are said to have delivered Trajan from 
hell. See “ Paradise, Canto xx. 40. 


184 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“ What I see hither tending, bears no trace 
Of human semblance, nor of aught beside 
That my foil’d sight can guess.” He answering thus: 
“So curb’d to earth, beneath their heavy terms 
Of torment stoop they, that mine eye at first 
Struggled as thine. But look intently thither; 
And disentangle with thy laboring view, 
What, underneath those stones, approacheth: now, 
E’en now, mayst thou discern the pangs of each.” 
Christians and proud! O poor and wretched ones! 
That, feeble in the mind’s eye, lean your trust 
Upon unstaid perverseness: know ye not 
That we are worms, yet made at last to form 
The winged insect,? imp’d with angel plumes, 
That to heaven’s justice unobstructed soars? 
Why buoy ye up aloft your unfledged souls? 
Abortive then and shapeless ye remain, 
Like the untimely embryon of a worm. 
As, to support incumbent floor or roof, 
For corbel, is a figure sometimes seen, 
That crumples up its knees unto its breast; 
With the feign’d posture, stirring ruth unfeign’d 
In the beholder’s fancy; so I saw 
These fashion’d, when I noted well their guise. 
Each, as his back was laden, came indeed 
Or more or less contracted; and it seem’d 
As he, who show’d most patience in his look, 
Wailing exclaim’d: “I can endure no more.” 


2“ The winged insect.” The butterfly was an ancient and well-known symbol 
of the human soul. 


PURGATORY 188 


CANTO XI 


ArcuMENT.—After a prayer uttered by the spirits, who were spoken- 
of in the last Canto, Virgil inquires the way upward, and is answered 
by one, who declares himself to have been Omberto, son of the 
Count of Santafiore. Next our Poet distinguishes Oderigi, the il- 
luminator, who discourses on the vanity of worldly fame, and points 
out to him the soul of Provenzano Salvani. 


a THOU Almighty Father! who dost make 
The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confined, 
But that, with love intenser, there thou -view’st 
Thy primal effluence; hallow’d be thy name: 
Join, each created being, to extol 
Thy might; for worthy humblest thanks and praise 
Is thy blest Spirit. May thy kingdom’s peace 
Come unto us; for we, unless it come, 
With all our striving, thither tend in vain. 
As, of their will, the angels unto thee 
Tender meet sacrifice, circling thy throne 
With loud hosannas; so of theirs be done 
By saintly men on earth. Grant us, this day, 
Our daily manna, without which he roams 
Through this rough desert retrograde, who most 
Toils to advance his steps. As we to each 
Pardon the evil done us, pardon thou 
. Benign, and of our merit take no count. 
*Gainst the old adversary, prove thou not 
Our virtue, easily subdued; but free 
From his incitements, and defeat his wiles. 
This last petition, dearest Lord! is made 
Not for ourselves; since that were needless now; 
But for their sakes who after us remain.” 
Thus for themselves and us good speed imploring, 
Those spirits went beneath a weight like that 
We sometimes feel in dreams; all, sore beset, 
But with unequal anguish; wearied all; 
Round the first circuit; purging as they go 
The world’s gross darkness off. In our behoof 
If their vows still be offer’d, what can here 
For them be vow’d and done by such, whose wills 


- 186 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Have root of goodness in them? Well beseems 

That we should help them wash away the stains 

They carried hence; that so, made pure and light, 

They may spring upward to the starry spheres. 
“Ah! so may mercy-temper’d justice rid 

Your burdens speedily; that ye have power 

To stretch your wing, which e’en to your desire 

Shall lift you; as ye show us on which hand 

Toward the ladder leads the shortest way. 

And if there be more passages than one, 

Instruct us of that easiest to ascend: 

For this man, who comes with me, and bears yet 

The charge of fleshly raiment Adam left him, 

Despite his better will, but slowly mounts.” 

From whom the answer came unto these words, 

Which my guide spake, appear’d not; but ’twas said: 

“ Along the bank to rightward come with us; 

And ye shall find a pass that mocks not toil 

Of living man to climb: and were it not 

That I am hinder’d by the rock, wherewith 

This arrogant neck is tamed, whence needs I stoop 

My visage to the ground; him, who yet lives, 

Whose name thou speak’st not, him I fain would view; 

To mark if e’er I knew him, and to crave 

His pity for the fardel that I bear. 

I was of Latium;! of a Tuscan born, 

A mighty one: Aldobrandesco’s name 

My sire’s, I know not if ye e’er have heard. 

My old blood and forefathers’ gallant deeds 

Made me so haughty, that I clean forgot 

The common mother; and to such excess 

Wax’d in my scorn of all men, that I fell, 

Fell therefore; by what fate, Sienna’s sons, 

Each child in Campagnatico, can tell. 

Iam Omberto: not me, only, pride 

Hath injured, but my kindred all involved 

In mischief with her. Here my lot ordains 

1] was of Latium.’? Omberto, the to such a pitch of fury against him 
son of Guglielmo Aldobrandesco, Count that he was murdered by them at Campa- 


of Santafiore, in the territory of Sienna. gnatico, 
His arrogance provoked his countrymen 


PURGATORY 


187 


Under this weight to groan, till I appease 

God’s angry justice, since I did it not 

Amongst the living, here amongst the dead.” 
Listening I bent my visage down: and one 

(Not he who spake) twisted beneath the weight 

That urged him, saw me, knew me straight, and call’d; 

Holding his eyes with difficulty fix’d 

Intent upon me, stooping as I went 


Companion of their way. 


“Ol” T exclaim’d, 


“ Art thou not Oderigi?? art not thou 

Agobbio’s glory, glory of that art 

Which they of Paris call the limner’s skill?” 
“Brother!” said he, “ with tints, that gayer smile, 

Bolognian Franco’s* pencil lines the leaves. 

His all the honor now; my light obscured. 

In truth, I had not been thus courteous to him 

The whilst I lived, through eagerness of zeal 

For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on. 

Here, of such pride, the forfeiture is paid. 

Nor were I even here, if, able still 

To sin, I had not turn’d me unto God. 

O powers of man! how vain your glory, nipt 

E’en in its height of verdure, if an age 


Less bright succeed not. 


Cimabue thought . 


To lord it over painting’s field; and now 

The cry is Giotto’s,* and his name eclipsed. 
Thus hath one Guido from the other® snatch’d 
The letter’d prize: and he, perhaps, is born, 


Who shall drive either from their nest. 


The noise 


Of worldly fame is but a blast of wind, 

That blows from diverse points, and shifts its name, 
Shifting the point it blows from. Shalt thou more 
Live in the mouths of mankind, if thy flesh 


8“ Oderigi.” The illuminator, or 
miniature painter, a friend of Giotto and 
Dante. 

8“ Bolognian Franco.” Franco of 
Bologna, who is said to have been a 
pupil of Oderigi’s. 

* “ The cry is Giotto’s.”? In Giotto we 
have a proof at how early a period the 
fine arts were encouraged in Italy. His 
talents were discovered by Cimabue, 
while he was aelstbed sheep for his father 
in the neighborhood of Florence, and he 


was afterward patronized by Pope Bene- 
dict XI and Robert, King of Naples; 
and enjoyed the society and friendship 
of Dante, whose likeness he has trans- 
mitted to posterity. He died in 1336, at 
the age of 60. F 

5 “ One Guido from the other.”” Guido 
Cavalcanti, the friend of our Poet, had 
eclipsed the literary fame, of Guido 
Guinicelli, of a noble family in Bologna, 
whom we shall meet with in the twenty- 
sixth Canto. 


188 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Part shrivel’d from thee, than if thou hadst died 
Before the coral and the pap were leit; 

Or e’er some thousand years have pass’d? and that 
Is, to eternity compared, a space 

Briefer than is the twinkling of an eye 

To the heaven’s slowest orb. He there, who treads 
So leisurely before me, far and wide 

Through Tuscany resounded once; and now 

Is in Sienna scarce with whispers named: 

There was he sovereign, when destruction caught 
The maddening rage of Florence, in that day 


Proud as she tiow is loathsome. 


Your renown 


Is as the herb, whose hue doth come and go; 


And his might withers it, by whom it sprang 
Crude from the lap of earth.” 


I thus to him: 


“True are thy sayings: to my heart they breathe 
The kindly spirit of meekness, and allay 


What tumors rankle there. 


Of whom thou speakest but now?” 
He is here, because 


“Is Provenzano. 


But who is he, 


“This,” he replied, 


He reach’d, with a grasp presumptuous, at the sway 


Of all Sienna. 


Thus he still hath gone, 


Thus goeth never-resting, since he died. 
Such is the acquittance render’d back of him, 
Who, in the mortal life, too much hath dared.” 


I then: 


“Tf soul, that to life’s verge delays 


Repentance, linger in that lower space, 

Nor hither mount (unless good prayers befriend), 

Or ever time, long as it lived, be past; 

How chanced admittance was vouchsafed to him?” 
“When at his glory’s topmost height,” said he, 

“Respect of dignity all cast aside, 

Freely he fix’d him on Sienna’s plain, 

A suitor® to redeem his suffering friend, 

Who languish’d in the prison-house of Charles; 

Nor, for his sake, refused through every vein 


6‘* A  suitor.”’ Provenzano Salvani 
humbled himself so far for the sake of 
one of his friends, who was detained in 
captivity by Charles I of Sicily, as per- 


sonally to supplicate the people of Sien- 


na to contribute the sum required by 


the King for his ransom: and this act of 
self-abasement aton for his general 
ambition and pride. He fell in the bat- 
tle of Vald’ Elsa,. wherein the Florene 
inks discomfited the Siennese in June, 
126a. 


PURGATORY 189 


To tremble. More I will not say; and dark, 

I know, my words are; but thy neighbors soon 
Shall help thee to a comment on the text. 

This is the work, that from these limits freed him.” 


CANTO XII 


ARGUMENT.—Dante being desired by Virgil to look down on the ground 
which they are treading, observes that it is wrought over with 
imagery exhibiting various instances of pride recorded in history 
and fable. They leave the first cornice, and are ushered to the next 
by an angel who points out the way. 


ITH equal pace, as oxen in the yoke, 
I, with that laden spirit, journey’d on, 
Long as the mild instructor suffer’d me; 
But, when he bade me quit him, and proceed, 
(For “ Here,” said he, “ behoves with sail and oars 
Each man, as best he may, push on his bark,”) 
Upright, as one disposed for speed, I raised 
My body, still in thought submissive bow’d. 
I now my leader’s track not loth pursued ; 
And each had shown how light we fared along, 
When thus he warned me: “ Bend thine eyesight down: 
For thou, to ease the way, shalt find it good 
To ruminate the bed beneath thy feet.” 
As, in memorial of the buried, drawn 
Upon earth-level tombs, the sculptured form 
Of what was once, appears (at sight whereof 
Tears often stream forth, by remembrance waked, 
Whose sacred stings the piteous often feel), 
So saw I there, but with more curious skill 
Of portraiture o’erwrought, whate’er of space 
From forth the mountain stretches. On one part 
Him I beheld, above all creatures erst 
Created noblest, lightening fall from heaven: 
On the other side, with bolt celestial pierced, 
Briareus; cumbering earth he lay, through dint 
Of mortal ice-stroke. The Thymbrzan god,* 
_ 3° The Thymbrzan god.” Apollo. 


190 | THE DIVINE COMEDY 


With Mars, I saw, and Pallas, round their sire, 
Arm’d still, and gazing on the giants’ limbs 
Strewn o’er the ethereal field. Nimrod I saw: 
At foot of the stupendous work he stood, 
_As if bewilder’d, looking on the crowd 
Leagued in his proud attempt on Sennaar’s plain. 
O Niobe! in what a trance of woe 
Thee I beheld, upon that highway drawn, 
Seven sons on either side thee slain. O Saul! 
How ghastly didst thou look, on thine own sword 
Expiring, in Gilboa, from that hour 
Ne’er visited with rain from heaven, or dew. 
O fond Arachne! thee I also saw, 
Half spider now, in anguish, crawling up 
The unfinish’d web thou weaved’st to thy bane. 
O Rehoboam! here thy shape doth seem 
Louring no more defiance; but fear-smote, 
With none to chase him, in his chariot whirl’d. 
Was shown beside upon the solid floor, 
How dear Alcmzon forced his mother rate 
That ornament, in evil hour received: 
How, in the temple, on Sennacherib fell 
His sons, and how a corpse they left him there. 
Was shown the scath, and cruel mangling made 
By Tomyris on Cyrus, when she cried, 
“ Blood thou didst thirst for: take thy fill of blood.” 
Was shown how routed in the battle fled 
The Assyrians, Holofernes slain, and e’en 
The relics of the carnage. Troy I mark’d, 
In ashes and in caverns. Oh! how fallen, 
How abject, Ilion, was thy semblance there. 
What master of the pencil or the style 
Had traced the shades and lines, that might have made 
The subtlest workman wonder? Dead, the dead; 
The living seem’d alive: with clearer view, 
His eye beheld not, who beheld the truth, 
Than mine what I did tread on, while I went 
Low bending. Now swell out, and with stiff necks 
Pass on, ye sons of Eve! vale not your looks, 
Lest they descry the evil of your path. 


PURGATORY 191 


I noted not (so busied was my thought) 

How much we now had circled of the mount; 
And of his course yet more the sun had spent; 
When he, who with still wakeful caution went, 
Admonish’d: ‘“ Raise thou up thy head: for know 
Time is not for slow suspense. Behold, 

That way, an angel hasting toward us. Lo! 
When duly the sixth handmaid doth return 
From service on the day. Wear thou, in look 
And gesture, seemly grace of reverent awe; 
That gladly he may forward us aloft. 

Consider that this day ne’er dawns again.” 

Time’s loss he had so often warn’d me ’gainst, 
I could not miss the scope at which he aim’d. 

The goodly shape approach’d us, snowy white 
In vesture, and with visage casting streams 
Of tremulous lustre like the matin star. 

His arms he open’d, then his wings; and spake: 
“Onward! the steps, behold, are near; and now 
The ascent is without difficulty gain’d.” 

A scanty few are they, who, when they hear 
Such tidings, hasten. O, ye race of men! 
Though born to soar, why suffer ye a wind 
So slight to baffle ye? He led us on 
Where the rock parted; here, against my front, 
Did beat his wings; then promised I should fare 
In safety on my way. As to ascend 
That steep, upon whose brow the chapel stands,? 
(O’er Rubaconte, looking lordly down 
On the well-guided city,?) up the right 
The impetuous rise is broken by the steps 
Carved in that old and simple age, when still 
The registry * and label rested safe; 

Thus is the acclivity relieved, which here, 
Precipitous, from the other circuit falls: 
But, on each hand, the tall cliff presses close. 


2“ The chapel stands.” The church 3“*The well-guided city.” This is 
of San Miniato in Florence, situated on said ironically of Florence. 
a height that overlooks the ‘Arno, where “The registry.””. In allusion to 
it is crossed by the bridge Rubaconte, oes instances of fraud committed in 


so called from Messer Rubaconte da Dante’s time with respect to the publi¢ 
Mandella, of Milan, chief magistrate of accounts and measures. 

Florence, by whom the bridge was 

founded in 1237. 


¢ 


192 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


As, entering, there we turn’d, voices, in strain 


Ineffable, sang: 
In spirit.” 


“ Blessed ® are the poor 
Ah! how far unlike to these 


The straits of hell: here songs to usher us, 


There shrieks of woe. 


We climb the holy stairs: 


And lighter to myself by far I seem’d 

Than on the plain before; whence thus I spake: 

“ Say, master, of what heavy thing have I 

Been lighten’d; that scarce aught the sense of toil 


Affects me journeying? ” 


He in few replied: 


“ When sin’s broad characters,® that yet remain 

Upon thy temples, though well nigh effaced, 

Shall be, as one is, all clean razed out: ~ 

Then shall thy feet by heartiness of will. 

Be so o’ercome, they not alone shall feel 

No sense of labor, but delight much more 

Shall wait them, urged along their upward way.” 
Then like to one, upon whose head is placed 

Somewhat he deems not of, but from the becks 

Of others, as they pass him by; his hand 

Lends therefore help to assure him, searches, finds, 

And well performs such office as the eye 

Wants power to execute; so stretching forth 

The fingers of my right hand, did I find 

Six only of the letters, which his sword, 

Who bare the keys, had traced upon my brow. 

The leader, as he mark’d mine action, smiled. 


5** Blessed.”” ‘‘ Blessed are the poor in 
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven.” Matth. v. 3. 

§“* Sin’s broad characters.”’ Of the 
seven P’s, that denoted the same num- 
ber of sins (Peccata) whereof he was 


to be cleansed (see Canto ix. 100), the 
first had now vanished in consequence 
of his having passed the place where 
the sin of pride, the chief of them, was 
expiated. 


PURGATO RY 193 


CANTO XIII 


ARGUMENT.—They gain the second cornice, where the sin of envy is 
purged; and having proceeded a little to the right, they hear voices 
uttered by invisible spirits recounting famous examples of charity, 
and next behold the shades, or souls, of the envious clad in sack- 
cloth, and having their eyes sewed up with an iron thread. Among 
these Dante finds Sapia, a Siennese lady, from whom he learns the 
cause of her being there. 


E reach’d the summit of the scale, and stood 
Upon the second buttress of that mount 
~ Which healeth him who climbs. A cornice there, 
Like to the former, girdles round the hill; 
Save that its arch, with sweep less ample, bends. 
Shadow, nor image there, is seen: all smooth 
The rampart and the path, reflecting naught 
But the rock’s sullen hue. “If here we wait, 
For some to question,” said the bard, “I fear 
Our choice may haply meet too long delay.” 
Then fixedly upon the sun his eyes 
He fasten’d; made his right the central point 
From whence to move; and turn’d the left aside. 
“O pleasant light, my confidence and hope! 
Conduct us thou,” he cried, “on this new way, 
Where now I venture; leading to the bourn 
We seek. The universal world to thee 
Owes warmth and lustre. If no other cause 
Forbid, thy beams should ever be our guide.” 
Far, as is measured for a mile on earth, 
In brief space had we journey’d; such prompt will 
Impell’d; and toward us flying, now were heard 
Spirits invisible, who courteously 
Unto love’s table bade the welcome guest. 
The voice, that first flew by, call’d forth aloud, 
“They have no wine,” so on behind us past, 
Those sounds reiterating, nor yet lost 
In the faint distance, when another came 
Crying, “I am Orestes,” + and alike 


2“ Orestes.” Alluding to his friendship with Pylades. 


194 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Wing’d its fleet away. ‘“‘O father!” I exclaim’d, 
“What tongues are these?” and as I question’d, lo! 
A third exclaiming, ‘‘ Love ye those have wrong’d you.” 
“This circuit,” said my teacher, “ knots the scourge 
For envy; and the cords are therefore drawn 
By charity’s correcting hand. The curb 
Is of a harsher sound; as thou shalt hear 
(If I deem rightly) ere thou reach the pass, 
Where pardon sets them free. But fix thine eyes 
Intently through the air; and thou shalt see 
A multitude before thee seated, each 
Along the shelving grot.’”’ Then more than erst 
I oped mine eyes; before me view’d; and saw 
Shadows with garments dark as was the rock; 
And when we pass’d a little forth, I heard 
A crying, “ Blessed Mary! pray for us, 
Michael and Peter! all ye saintly host!” 
I do not think there walks on earth this day 
Man so remorseless, that he had not yearn’d 
With pity at the sight that next I saw. 
Mine eyes a load of sorrow teem’d, when now 
I stood so near them, that their semblances 
Came clearly to my view. Of sackcloth vile 
Their covering seem’d; and, on his shoulder, one 
Did stay another, leaning; and all lean’d 
Against the cliff. E’en thus the blind and poor, 
Near the confessionals, to crave an alms, 
Stand, each his head upon his fellow’s sunk; 
So most to stir compassion, not by sound 
Of words alone, but that which moves not less, 
The sight of misery. And as never beam 
Of noon-day visiteth the eyeless man, 
E’en so was heaven a niggard unto these 
Of this fair light: for, through the orbs of all, 
A thread of wire, impiercing, knits them up, 
As for the taming of a haggard hawk. 
It were a wrong, methought, to pass and look 
On others, yet myself the while unseen. 
To my sage counsel therefore did I turn. 
He knew the meaning of the mute appeal, 


PURGATORY 195 


Nor waited for my questioning, but said: 
“ Speak; and be brief, be subtile in thy words.” 
On that part of the cornice, whence no rim 
Engarlands its steep fall, did Virgil come; 
On the other side me were the spirits, their cheeks 
Bathing devout with penitential tears, 
That through the dread impalement forced a way. 
I turn’d me to them, and “ O shades!” said I, 
“ Assured that to your eyes unveil’d shall shine 
The lofty light, sole object of your wish, 
So may heaven’s grace clear whatsoe’er of foam 
Floats turbid on the conscience, that thenceforth 
The stream of mind roll limpid from its source; 
As ye declare (for so shall ye impart 
A boon I dearly prize) if any soul 
Of Latium dwell among ye: and perchance 
That soul may profit, if I learn so much.” 
“My brother! we are, each one, citizens 
Of one true city.2 Any, thou wouldst say, 
Who lived a stranger in Italia’s land.” 
So heard I answering, as appear’d, a voice 
That onward came some space from whence I stood. 
A spirit I noted, in whose look was mark’d 
Expectance. Ask ye how? The chin was raised 
As in one reft of sight. “ Spirit,” said I, 
“ Who for thy rise art tutoring, (if thou be - 
That which didst answer to me,) or by place, 
Or name, disclose thyself, that I may know thee.” 
“T was,” it answer’d, “of Sienna: here 
I cleanse away with these the evil life, 
Soliciting with tears that He, who is, 
Vouchsafe him to us. Though Sapia* named, 
In sapience I excell’d not; gladder far. 
Of other’s hurt, than of the good befell me. 
That thou mayst own I now deceive thee not, 
Hear, if my folly were not as I speak it. 


3 ** _____ Citizens ing in exile at Colle, was so overjoyed 
Of one true city! ”’ at a defeat which her countrymen sus- 

** For here we have no continuing city, tained near that place, that she declared 
but we seek one to come,’”’—Heb. xiii. nothing more was wanting to make her 


14. die contented. 
8“ Sapia.”” A lady of Sienna, who, liv- 


196 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


When now my tears sloped waning down the arch, 
It so bechanced, my fellow-citizens 

Near Colle met their enemies in the field; 

And I pray’d God to grant what He had will’d.* 
There were they vanquish’d, and betook themselves 
Unto the bitter passages of flight. 

I mark’d the hunt; and waxing out of bounds 

In gladness, lifted up my shameless brow, 

And, like the merlin ® cheated by a gleam, 


Cried, ‘It is over. 


Heaven! I fear thee not.’ 


Upon my verge of life I wish’d for peace 
With God; nor yet repentance had supplied 
What I did lack of duty, were it not 

The hermit Piero,® touch’d with charity, 

In his devout orisons thought on me. 

But who art thou that question’st of our state, 
Who go’st, as I believe, with lids unclosed, 


And breathest in thy talk?” 


“ Mine eyes,” said I, 


“May yet be here ta’en from me; but not long; 
For they have not offended grievously 


With envious glances. 


But the woe beneath 7 


Urges my soul with more exceeding dread. 
That nether load already weighs me down.” 


She thus: 


“Who then, among us here aloft, 


Hath brought thee, if thou weenest to return? ” 

“He,” answered I, “ who standeth mute beside me. 
T live: of me ask therefore, chosen spirit! | 
If thou desire I yonder yet should move 


For thee my mortal feet.” 


“Oh!” she replied, 


“ This is so strange a thing, it is a great sign 


That God doth love thee. 


Therefore with thy prayer 


Sometime assist me: and, by that I crave, 
Which most thou covetest, that if thy feet 
F’er tread on Tuscan soil, thou save my fame 
Among my kindred. Them shalt thou behold 


4“ And I pray’d God to grant what 


He had will’d.”” That her countrymen 


should be defeated in battle. 

5“ The merlin.” The story of the 
merlin is, that having been induced by 
a gleam of fine weather in the winter to 
escape from his master, he was soon 
eppressed by the rigor of the season. 


6°“ The hermit Piero.” Piero Pettin- 
agno, a holy hermit of Florence. 

7“ The woe beneath.”? Dante felt that 
he was much more subject to the sin 
of pride, than to that of envy; and this 
is Just what we should have concluded 
of a mind such as his. 


Ror 
Fe 


PURGATORY 197 


With that vain multitude,’ who set their hope 

On Telamone’s haven; there to fail 

Confounded, more than when the fancied stream 
They sought, of Dian call’d: but they, who lead 
Their navies, more than ruin’d hopes shall mourn.” 


CANTO XIV 


ARGUMENT.—Our Poet on this second cornice finds also the souls of 


Guido del Duca of Brettinoro, and_Rinieri da Calboli of Romagna ; 
Teche ct chon hearing that he comes from the banks of the 
Arno, inveighs against the degeneracy of all those who dwell in the 
cities visited by that stream; and the former, in like manner, against 


the inhabitants of Romagna. On leaving these, our Poets hear 
voices recording noted instances of envy. 


h AY,! who is he around our mountain winds, 
Or ever death has pruned his wing for flight; 
That opes his eyes, and covers them at will?” 
“TIT know not who he is, but know thus much; 
He comes not singly. . Do thou ask of him, 
For thou art nearer to him; and take heed, 
Accost him gently, so that he may speak.” 
Thus on the right two spirits, bending each 
Toward the other, talk’d of me; then both 
Addressing me, their faces backward lean’d, 
And thus the one? began: “O soul, who yet 
Pent in the body, tendest toward the sky! 
For charity, we pray thee, comfort us; 
Recounting whence thou comest, and who thou art: 
For thou dost make us, at the favor shown thee, 
(Marvel, as at a thing that ne’er hath been.” 
“There stretches through the midst of Tuscany, 
I straight began, “a brooklet,? whose well-head 
Springs up in Falterona; with his race 
Not satisfied, when he some hundred miles 
Hath measured. From his banks bring I this frame. 
8“ That vain multitude.” The Sien- a3"* The one.” Guido del Duca. 
ese. 8“ A brooklet.”” The Arno, that rises 
1“ Say.’”’ The two spirits who thus in Falterona, a mountain in the Apen- 
speak to each other are Guido del Duca, nines, Its course is 120 miles, 


of Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli, of 
Romagna. 


198 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To tell you who I am were words mis-spent: 
For yet my name scarce sounds on rumor’s lip.” 

“Tf well I do incorporate with my thought 
The meaning of thy speech,” said he, who first 
Address’d me, “‘ thou dost speak of Arno’s wave.” 

To whom the other:* “ Why hath he conceal’d 
The title of that river, as a man 
Doth of some horrible thing?” The spirit, who 
Thereof was question’d, did acquit him thus: 
“T know not: but ’tis fitting well the name 
Should perish of that vale; for from the source,® 
Where teems so plenteously the Alpine steep 
Maim’d of Pelorus (that doth scarcely pass 
Beyond that limit), even to the point 
Where unto ocean is restored what heaven 
Drains from the exhaustless store for all earth’s streams, 
Throughout the space is virtue worried down, 
As ’t were a snake by all, for mortal foe; 
Or through disastrous influence on the place, 
Or else distortion of misguided wills 
That custom goads to evil: whence in those, 
The dwellers in that miserable vale, 
Nature is so transform’d, it seems as they 
Had shared of Circe’s feeding. ’Midst brute swine,® 
Worthier of acorns than of other food 
Created for man’s use, he shapeth first 
His obscure way; then, sloping onward, finds 
Curs,’ snarlers more in spite than power, from whom 
He turns with scorn aside: still journeying down, 
By how much more the curst and luckless foss ® 
Swells out to largeness, e’en so much it finds 
Dogs turning into wolves.? Descending still 
Through yet more hollow eddies, next he meets 
A race of foxes,’® so replete with craft, 
They do not fear that skill can master it. 


4“ The other.” Rinieri da Calboli. 6‘*’Midst brute swine.’”? The people 
8 ‘* From the source.’ From the rise of Casentino. 
of the Arno in that ** Alpine steep,” the 7** Curs.”” The Arno leaves Arezzo 
Apennines, from whence Pelorus in Sic- about four miles to the left. 
ily was torn by a convulsion of the 8“ Foss.” So in his anger he terms 
earth, even to the point where the same the Arno. ‘ 
river unites its waters to the ocean, Vir- 9“ Wolves.” The Florentines, 


tue is persecuted by all. 10 “* Foxes.’”? The Pisans, 


PURGATORY 199 


Nor will I cease because my words are heard 
By other ears than thine. It shall be well 
For this man,’? if he keep in memory 

What from no erring spirit I reveal. 

Lo! I behold thy grandson, that becomes 

A hunter of those wolves, upon the shore 

Of the fierce stream; and cows them all with dread. 
Their flesh, yet living, sets he up to sale, 
Then, like an aged beast, to slaughter dooms. 
Many of life he ’reaves, himself of worth 

And goodly estimation. Smear’d with gore, 
Mark how he issues from the rueful wood; 
Leaving such havoc, that in thousand years 
It spreads not to prime lustihood again.” 

As one, who tidings hears of woe to come, 
Changes his looks perturb’d, from whate’er part 
The peril grasp him; so beheld I change 
That spirit, who had turn’d to listen; struck 
With sadness, sdon as he had caught the word. 

His visage, and the other’s speech, did raise 
Desire in me to know the names of both; 
Whereof, with meek entreaty, I inquired. 

The shade, who late address’d me, thus resumed: 
“Thy wish imports, that I vouchsafe to do 
For thy sake what thou wilt not do for mine. 
But, since God’s will is that so largely shine 
His grace in thee, I will be liberal too. 

Guido of Duca know then that I am. 

Envy so parch’d my blood, that had I seen 

A fellow man made joyous, thou hadst mark’d 

A livid paleness overspread my cheek. 

Such harvest reap I of the seed I sow’d. 

O man! why place thy heart where there doth need 
Exclusion of participants in good? 

This is Rinieri’s spirit; this, the boast 

And honor of the house of Calboli; 


31‘* My words are heard.” It should has told us that he comes from the 
be teéailecrod that Guido still addresses banks of Arno. 
himself to Rinieri. 18‘* Thy grandson.” eg da Cal- 
12 “ For this man.” For Dante, who boli, grandson of Rinieri da Calboli, 
who is here spoken to. 


200 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Where of his worth no heritage remains. 

Nor his the only blood, that hath been stript 

('Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shore '*) 
Of all that truth or fancy asks for bliss: 

But, in those limits, such a growth has sprung 

Of rank and venom’d roots, as long would mock - 


Slow culture’s toil. 


Where is good Lizio? * where 


Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpigna? ?¢ 

O bastard slips of old Romagna’s line! 

When in Bologna the low artisan,” 

And in Faenza yon Bernardin ** sprouts, 

A gentle cyon from ignoble stem. 

Wonder not, Tuscan, if thou see me weep, 
When I recall to mind those once loved names, 
Guido of Prata,?® and of Azzo him ?° 

That dwelt with us; Tignoso ?! and his troop, 
With Traversaro’s house and Anastagio’s ?? 
(Each race disherited) ; and beside these, 

The ladies and the knights, the toils and ease, 
That witch’d us into love and courtesy; 

Where now such malice reigns in recreant hearts. 
O Brettinoro! 2? wherefore tarriest still, 

Since forth of thee thy family hath gone, | 
And many, hating evil, join’d their steps? 

Well doeth he, that bids his lineage cease, 
Bagnacavallo ; ** Castracaro ill, 

And Conio worse,”*> who care to propagate 


14 °Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, 
and the shore.”? The boundaries of Ro- 
magna. 

15 “* Lizio.” Lizio da Valbona intro- 
duced into Boccaccio’s ‘*‘ Decameron,” 


TIN ae 

16 “* Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpig- 
na.”’ Arrigo Manardi, of Faenza, or, as 
some say, of Brettinoro; Pier_Traver- 
saro, Lord of Ravenna; and Guido di 
Carpigna, of Montefeltro. 

17“ Tn Bologna the low artisan.” One 
who had been a mechanic, named Lam- 
bertaccio, arrived at almost supreme 
power in Bologna. 

18‘ Yon Bernardin.’”’ Bernardin di 
Fosco, a man of low origin, but great 
talents, who governed at Faenza. 

19 * Prata.”” A place between Faenza 
and Ravenna. ; 

2‘ Of Azzo him.” Ugolino, of the 
Ubaldini family in Tuscany. 

21 Tignoso.” Federigo Tignoso of 
Rimini. 


22“ Traversaro’s house and_Anasta- 
gio’s.”” Two noble families of Ravenna. 

23“ QO Brettinoro.” <A beautifully sit- 
uated castle in Romagna, the hospitable 
residence of Guido del Duca, who is here 
speaking. Landino relates that there 
were several of this family who, when 
a stranger arrived among them, con- 
tended with one another by whom he 
should be entertained; and that in order 
to end this dispute, they set up a pillar 
with as many rings as there were fa- 
thers of families among them, a rin 
being assigned to each, and that accord- 
ingly as a stranger on his arrival hun 
his horse’s bridle on one or other o 
these, he became his guest to whom the 


Ting belonged. 


24 ** Bagnacavallo.”” A castle between 
Imola and Ravenna. 
25 ‘“¢ —— Castracaro ill, 


: And Conio worse. 
Both in Romagna. 


PURGATORY _ (cee Nia ale 


A race of Counties 7° from such blood as theirs. 

Well shall ye also do, Pagani,?* then 

When from among you hies your demon child; 

Not so, howe’er, that thenceforth there remain 

True proof of what ye were. O Hugolin,?8 

Thou sprung of Fantolini’s line! thy name 

Is safe; since none is look’d for after thee 

To cloud its lustre, warping from thy stock. 

But, Tuscan! go thy ways; for now I take 

Far more delight in weeping, than in words. 

Such pity for your sakes hath wrung my heart.” 
We knew those gentle spirits, at parting, heard 

Our steps. Their silence therefore, of our way, 

Assured us. Soon as we had quitted them, 

Advancing onward, lo! a voice, that seem’d 

Like volley’d lightning, when it rives the air, 

Met us, and shouted, “ Whosoever finds 

Will slay me;” and then fled from us, as the bolt 

Lanced sudden from a downward-rushing cloud. 

When it had given short truce unto our hearing, 

Behold the other with a crash as loud 

As the qitick-following thunder: “ Mark in me 

Aglauros, turn’d to rock.” I, at the sound 

Retreating, drew more closely to my guide. 
Now in mute stillness rested all the air; 

And thus he spake: “ There was the galling bit 

Which should keep man within his boundary. 

But your old enemy so baits the hook, 

He drags you eager to him. Hence nor curb 

Avails you, nor reclaiming all. Heaven calls, 

And, round about you wheeling, courts your gaze 

With everlasting beauties. Yet your eye 

Turns with fond doting still upon the earth. 

Therefore He smites you who discerneth all.” 


26 “ Counties.” 1s shave used this word from his teacher. See “‘ Hell,”” Canto 
here for “‘ counts,’’ as it is in Shake- XXVil. i and note 


speare. antes olin.” Ugolino Ubaldini, a 

27“ Pagani.” The Pagani were lords eons and virtuous re in Faenza, 
of Faenza and Imola. One of them, who, on account of his age probably, 
Machinardo, was named “‘the Demon,” was not likely to leave any offspring 


behind him. 


202 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XV 


ARGUMENT.—An angel invites them to ascend the next steep. On their 
way Dante suggests certain doubts, which are resolved by Virgil; 
and, when they reach the third cornice, where the sin of anger is 
purged, our Poet, in a kind of waking dream, beholds remarkable 
instances of patience; and soon after they are enveloped in a dense 
fog. 


S much as ’twixt the third hour’s close and dawn, 
A Appeareth of heaven’s sphere, that ever whirls 
As restless as an infant in his play; 

So much appear’d remaining to the 
Of his slope journey toward the western goal. 

Evening was there, and here the noon of night; 
And full upon our forehead smote the beams. 
For round the mountain, circling, so our path 
Has led us, that toward the sunsset now 
Direct we journey’d; when I felt a weight 
‘Of more exceeding splendor, than before, 
Press on my front. The cause unknown, amaze 
Possess’d me! and both hands against my brows 
Lifting, I interposed them,.as a screen, 
That of its gorgeous superflux of light 
Clips the diminish’d orb. As when the ray, 
Striking on water or the surface clear 
Of mirror, leaps unto the opposite part, 
Ascending at a glance, e’en as it fell, 
And as much differs from the stone, that falls 
Through equal space (so practic skill hath shown) ; 
Thus with refracted light, before me seem’d 
The ground there smitten; whence, in sudden haste, 
My sight recoil’d. “ What is this, sire beloved! 
’Gainst which I strive to shield the sight in vain?” 
Cried I, “and which toward us moving seems?” 

“ Marvel not, if the family of heaven,” 
He answer’d, “ yet with dazzling radiance dim 
Thy sense. It is a messenger who comes, 
Inviting man’s ascent. Such sights ere long, 
Not grievous, shall impart to thee delight, 
As thy perception is by nature wrought 


PURGATORY 


Up to their pitch.” The blessed angel, soon 
As we had reach’d him, hailed us with glad voice: 
** Here enter on a ladder far less steep 
Than ye have yet encounter’d.” We forthwith 
Ascending, heard behind us chanted sweet, 
“ Blessed the merciful,’ ? and “ Happy thou, 
That conquer’st.” Lonely each, my guide and I, 
Pursued our upward way; and as we went, 
Some profit from his words I hoped to win, 
And thus of him inquiring, framed my speech: 
“What meant Romagna’s spirit,? when he spake 
Of bliss exclusive, with no partner shared?” 

He straight replied: ‘ No wonder, since he knows 
What sorrow waits on his own worst defect, 
If he chide others, that they less may mourn. 
Because ye point your wishes at a mark, 
Where, by communion of possessors, part 
Is lessen’d, envy bloweth up men’s sighs. 
No fear of that might touch ye, if the love 
Of higher sphere exalted your desire. 
For there, by how much more they call it ours, 
So much propriety of each in good 
Increases more, and heighten’d charity 
Wraps that éair cloister in a brighter flame.” 

“ Now lack I satisfaction more,” said I, 
Than if thou hadst been silent at the first ; 
And doubt more gathers on my laboring thought. 
How can it chance, that good distributed, 
The many, that possess it, makes more rich, 
Than if ’t were shared by few?” He answering thus: 
“ Thy mind reverting still to things of earth, 
Strikes darkness from true light. The highest good 
Unlimited, ineffable, doth so speed 
To love, as beam to lucid body darts, 
Giving as much of ardor as it finds. 
The sempiternal effluence streams abroad, 
Spreading, wherever charity extends. 
So that the more aspirants to that bliss 


1** Blessed the merciful.” Matt. v 
8° Romagna’s _ spirit.’’ Bante, fa Duca, of Brettinoro. 


203 


204 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Are multiplied, more good is there to love, 

And more is loved; as mirrors, that reflect, 

Each unto other, propagated light. 

If these my words avail not to allay 

Thy thirsting, Beatrice thou shalt see, 

Who of this want, and of all else thou hast, 

Shall rid thee to the full. Provide but thou, 

That from thy temples may be soon erased, 

E’en as the two already, those five scars, 

That, when they pain thee worst, then kindliest heal.” 
“ Thou,” I had said, “ content’st me;” when I saw 

The other round was gain’d, and wondering eyes 


Did keep me mute. 


There suddenly I seem’d 


By an ecstatic vision wrapt away ; 

And in a temple saw, methought, a crowd 

Of many persons; and at the entrance stood 

A dame, whose sweet demeanor did express 

A mother’s love, who said, “ Child! why hast thou 


Dealt with us thus? 


Behold thy sire and I 


Sorrowing have sought thee;” and so held her peace; 
And straight the vision fled. A female next 
Appear’d before me, down whose visage coursed 
Those waters, that grief forces out from one 

By deep resentment stung who seem’d to say: 

“Tf thou, Pisistratus, be lord indeed 

Over this city,? named with such debate 

Of adverse gods, and whence each science sparkles, 
Avenge thee of those arms, whose bold embrace 


Hath clasp’d our daughter ; 


99 


and to her, meseem’d, 


Benign and meek, with visage undisturb’d, 
Her sovereign spake: ‘“ How shall we those requite * 
Who wish us evil, if we thus condemn 


The man that loves us?” 


After that I saw 


A multitude, in fury burning, slay 
With stones a stripling youth,® and shout amain 
“ Destroy, destroy ;” and him I saw, who bow’d 


8“ Over this city.”’ Athens, named after 
AOjvy, Minerva, in consequence of her 
having produced a more valuable gift 
for it in the olive, than Neptune had 
done in the horse. 

+ “* How shall we those requite.” The 
answer of Pisistratus the tyrant to his 


wife, when she urged him to inflict the 
punishment of death on a young man, 
who, inflamed with love for his daugh- 
ter, had snatched a kiss from her in 
public. ; 

5* A stripling youth.” The protomar- 
tyr Stephen. 


_ PURGATORY 205 


Heavy with death unto the ground, yet made 
His eyes, unfolded upward, gates to heaven, 
Praying forgiveness of the Almighty Sire, 
Amidst that cruel conflict, on his foes, 
With looks that win compassion to their aim. 

Soon as my spirit, from her airy flight 
Returning, sought again the things whose truth 
Depends not on her shaping, I observed 
She had not roved to falsehood in her dreams. 

Meanwhile the leader, who might see I moved 
As one who struggles to shake off his sleep, 
Exclaim’d: ‘“ What ails thee, that thou canst not hold 
Thy footing firm; but more than half a league 
Hast travell’d with closed eyes and tottering gait, 
Like to a man by wine or sleep o’ercharged?”’ 

“ Beloved father! so thou deign,” said I, 

“ To listen, I will tell thee what appear’d 
Before me, when so fail’d my sinking steps.” 

He thus: “ Not if thy countenance were mask’d 
With hundred visors could a thought of thine, 
How small soe’er, elude me. What thou saw’st 
Was shown, that freely thou mightst ope thy heart 
To the waters of peace, that flow diffused 
From their eternal fountain. I not ask’d, 

What ails thee? for such cause as he doth, who 
Looks only with that eye, which sees no more, 
When spiritless the body lies; but ask’d, 

To give fresh vigor to thy foot. Such goads, 

The slow and loitering need; that they be found 
Not wanting when their hour of watch returns.” 
So on we journey’d, through the evening sky 

Gazing intent, far onward as our eyes, 

With level view, could stretch against the bright 

Vespertine ray: and lo! by slow degrees 

Pauenag. a tog mace foward us, dark as night. 
no room for ‘scaping’; and that mist 

Bereft us, bor or seht and th pure air. 


Classics. Vol. 34—J 


200 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XVI 


ArRGUMENT.—As they proceed through the mist, they hear the voices of 


spirits praying. rco Lombardo, one of these, pomts-out-te~Dante 
the error of such as impufé OF actions to necessity ; explains to him 
that man is endued with free will; and shows that much of human 


depravity results from the undue mixture of spiritual and temporal 
authority in rulers. 


ELL’S dunnest gloom, or night unlustrous, dark, 
H Of every planet ’reft, and pall’d in clouds, 
Did never spread before the sight a veil 

In thickness like that fog, nor to the sense 
So palpable and gross. Entering its shade, 
Mine eye endured not with unclosed lids ; 
Which marking, near me drew the faithful guide, 
Offering me his shoulder for a stay. 

As the blind man behind his leader walks, 
Lest he should err, or stumble unawares 
On what might harm him or perhaps destroy; 
I journey’d through that bitter air and foul, 
Still listening to my escort’s warning voice, 
“Look that from me thou part not.” Straight I heard 
Voices, and each one seem’d to pray for peace, 
And for compassion, to the Lamb of God 
That taketh sins away. Their prelude still 
Was “ Agnus Dei”’; and through all the quire, 
One voice, one measure ran, that perfect seem’d 
The concord of their song. ‘‘ Are these I hear 
Spirits, O master? ’”’ I exclaim’d; and he, 
“Thou aim’st aright: these loose the bonds of wrath.” 

“Now who art thou, that through our smoke dost cleave, 
And sp¢k’st of us, as thou thyself e’en yet 
Dividest time by calends?” So one voice 
Bespake me; whence my master said, “ Reply; 
And ask, if upward hence the passage lead.” 

“O being! who dost make thee pure, to stand 
Beautiful once more in thy Maker’s sight; 
Along with me: and thou shalt hear and wonder.” 
Thus I, whereto the spirit answering spake: 
“Long as ’tis lawful for me, shall my steps 


PURGATORY 


207 


Follow on thine; and since the cloudy smoke 
Forbids the seeing, hearing in its stead 


Shall keep us join’d.” 


I then forthwith began: 


“Yet in my mortal swathing, I ascend 
To higher regions ; and am hither come 
Through the fearful agony of Hell. 
And, if so largely God hath doled his grace, 
That, clean beside all modern precedent, 
He wills me to behold his kingly state; 
From me conceal not who thou wast, ere death 
Had loosed thee; but instruct me: and instruct 
If rightly to the pass I tend; thy words 
The way directing, as a safe escort.” 

“I was of Lombardy, and Marco call’d : 
Not inexperienced of the world, that worth 
I still affected, from which all have turn’d 


The nerveless bow aside. 


Thy course tends right 


Unto the summit:” and, replying thus, 
He added, “I beseech thee pray for me, 


When thou shalt come aloft.” 


And I to him: 


“Accept my faith for pledge I will perform 


What thou requirest. 


Yet one doubt remains, 


That wrings me sorely, if I solve it not. 

Singly before it urged me, doubled now 

By thine opinion, when I couple that 

With one elsewhere declared; each strengthening other. 
The world indeed is even so forlorn 

Of all good, as thou speak’st it, and so swarms 


With every evil. 


Yet, beseech thee, point 


The cause out to me, that myself may see, 
And unto others show it: for in heaven 
One places it, and one on earth below.” 

Then heaving forth a deep and audible sigh, 


“ Brother!” he thus began, “ the world is blind; 


1**T was of Lombardy, and Marco 
call’d.” A Venetian gentleman. ‘‘ Lom- 
bardo,’”’ both was his surname and de- 
moted the country to which he belonged. 
G. Villani, lib. vii. cap. cxx. terms him 
*“a wise and worthy courtier.’”’ Ben- 
venuto da Imola, says Landino, relates 
of him, that being imprisoned and not 
able to pay the price of his ransom, he 
applied by letter to his friend Riccardo 


da Camino, lord of Trevigi, for relief, 
Riccardo set on foot a_ contribution 
among several nobles of Lombardy for 
the purpose; of which when Marco was 
informed, he wrote back with much in- 
dignation to Riccardo, that he had 
rather die than remain under obligations 
to so many benefactors, It is added 
that Riccardo then paid the whole out 
of his own purse. 


208 


And thouin truth comest from it. 
Do so each cause reter to 


éaven above, 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


e, V iV 


E’en as its motion, of necessity, 


Drew with it all that moves. 


If this were so, 


Free choice in you were none; nor justice would 
There should be joy for virttfe, woe for ill. 

Your movements have their primal bent from heaven; 
Not all: yet said I all: what then ensues? 

Light have ye still to follow evil or good, 

And of the will free power, which, if it stand 

Firm and unwearied in Heaven’s first assay, 
Conquers at last, so it be cherish’d well, 


Triumphant over all. 


To mightier force, 


To better nature subject, ye abide 
Free, not constrain’d by that which forms in you 
The reasoning mind uninfluenced of the stars. 
‘If then the present race of mankind err, 
Seek in yourselves the cause, and find it there. 
Herein thou shalt confess me no false spy. 

“ Forth from his plastic hand, who charm’d beholds 
Her image ere she yet exist, the soul 
Comes like a babe, that wantons sportively, 
Weeping and laughing in its wayward moods; 
As artless, and as ignorant of aught, 
Save that her Maker being one who dwells 
With gladness ever, willingly she turns 


To whate’er yields her joy. 


Of some slight good 


The flavor soon she tastes; and, snared by that, 
With fondness she pursues it; if no guide 

Recall, no rein direct her wandering course. 

Hence it behoved, the law should be a curb; 

A sovereign hence behooved, whose piercing view 
Might mark at least the fortress *? and main tower 
Of the true city. Laws indeed there are: 

But who is he who observes them? None ;, not he, 


8“ The fortress.” Justice, the most 
mecessary virtue in the chief magistrate, 
as the commentators for the most part 
explain it: and it appears manifest from 
all our Poet says in his first book De 
Monarchia, ae a the authority of 
the temporal Monarch and concerning 
Justice, that they are right. Yet Lom- 


bardi understands the law ‘here spoken 
of to be the law of God; ‘“‘ the sover- 
eign,” a spiritual ruler, and ‘the true 
city,’’ the society of true believers; so 
that “the fortress,” according to him, 
denotes the principal parts of Chris- 
tian duty. 


PURGATORY 


Who goes before, the shepherd of the flock, 

Who ® chews the cud but doth not cleave the hoof. 
Therefore the multitude, who see their guide 
Strike at the very good they covet most, 

Feed there and look no further. Thus the cause 
Is not corrupted nature in yourselves, 

But ill-conducting, that hath turn’d the world 

To evil. Rome, that turn’d it unto good, 

Was wont to boast suns,* whose several beams 
Cast light on either way, the world’s and God’s. 
One since hath quench’d the other; and the sword 
Is grafted on the crook; and, so conjoin’d, 

Each must perforce decline to worse, unawed 

By fear of other. If thou doubt me, mark 

The blade: each herb is judged of by its seed. 
That land,’ through which Adice and the Po 
Their waters roll, was once the residence 

Of courtesy and valor, ere the day ° 

That frown’d on Frederick; now secure may pass 
Those limits, whosoe’er hath left, for same, 

To talk with good men, or come near their haunts. 
Three aged ones are still found there, in whom 
The old time chides the new: these deem it long 


Ere God restore them to a better world: 

The good Gherardo ;’ of Plazzo he, 

Conrad ;* and Guido of Castello,® named 

In Gallic phrase more fitly the plain Lombard. 


On this at last conclude. 


The church of Rome, 


Mixing two governments that ill assort, 
Hath miss’d her footing, fallen into the mire, 
And there herself and burden much defiled.” 


8“ Who.” He compares the Pope, on 
account of the union of the temporal 
with the spiritual power in his person, 
to an unclean beast in the Levitical law. 
“The camel, because he cheweth the 
cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is 
unclean unto you.”’ Levit. xi. 4. 

4** Two suns.” The Emperor and the 
Bishop of Rome. 

5“ That land.’?. Lombardy. 

6“ Ere the day.”’ Before the Emperor 
Frederick II was defeated before Par- 
ma, in 1248. 

7** The good Gherardo.” Gherardo da 
Camino, of Trevigi. He is honorably 
mentioned in our Poet’s ‘* Convito,” p. 


173. ‘* Let us suppose that Gherardo da 
Camino had been the grandson of the 
meanest hind that ever drank of the 
Sile or the Cagnano, and that his grand- 
father was not yet forgotten; who will 
dare to say that Gherardo da Camino 
Was a mean man, and who will not agree 
with me in calling him noble? Certainly 
no one, however presumptuous, will 
deny this; for such he was, and as such. 
let him ever be remembered.” 
8 ‘* Conrad.”” Conrado da Palazzo, a 
gentleman of Brescia. . 
9 ** Guido of Castello.”’ 
the Italians were called Lombar 
French, | 


Of Reggio. All 
ce by the 


210 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“© Marco!” I replied, “ thine arguments 
Convince me: and the cause I now discern, 
Why of the heritage no portion came 
To Levi's offspring. But resolve me this: 
Who that Gherardo is, that as thou say’st 
Is left a sample of the perish’d race, 
And for rebuke to this untoward age?” 
“Either thy words,” said he, “ deceive, or else 
Are meant to try me; that thou, speaking Tuscan, 
Appear’st not to have heard of good Gherardo; 
The sole addition that, by which I know him; 
Unless I borrow’d from his daughter Gaia 1° 
Another name to grace him. God be with you. 
I bear you company no more. Behold 
The dawn with white ray glimmering through the mist. 
I must away—the angel comes—ere he 
Appear.” He said, and would not hear me more. 


CANTO XVII 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet issues from that thick vapor; and soon after his 
fancy represents to him in lively portraiture some noted examples 
of anger. This imagination is dissipated by the appearance of an 
angel, who marshals them onward to the fourth cornice, on which 
the sin of gloominess or indifference is purged; and here Virgil 
shows him that this vice proceeds from a defect of love, and that 
all love can be only of two sorts, either natural, or of the soul; of 
which sorts the former is always right, but the latter may err either 
in respect of object or of degree. 


ALL to remembrance, reader, if thou e’er 
Hast on an Alpine height been ta’en by cloud, 
Through which thou saw’st no better than the mole 
Doth through opacous membrane; then, whene’er 
The watery vapors dense began to melt 
Into thin air, how faintly the sun’s sphere 
Seem’d wading through them: so thy nimble thought 


— ee oo 


10 “* His daughter Gaia.”’ A lady equal- the praise of having been the first among 
ly admired for her modesty, the beauty the Italian ladies, by whom the ver: 
of her person, and the excellency of her nacular poetry was cultivated. 
talents. Gaia may perhaps lay claim to 


PURGATORY 


211r 


May image, how at first I rebeheld 
The sun, that bedward now his couch o’erhung. 
Thus, with my leader’s feet still equalling pace, 
From forth that cloud I came, when now expired 
The parting beams from off the nether shores. 
O quick and forgetive power! that sometimes dost 
So rob us of ourselves, we take no mark 
Though round about us thousand trumpets clang; 


What moves thee, if the senses stir not? 


Light 


Moves thee from heaven, spontaneous, self-inform’d ; 
Or, likelier, gliding down with swift illapse 


By will divine. 


Portray’d before me came 


The traces of her dire impiety, 

Whose form was changed into the bird, that most 
Delights itself in song:+ and here my mind 
Was inwardly so wrapt, it gave no place 

To aught that ask’d admittance from without. 
Next shower’d into my fantasy a shape 

As of one crucified, whose visage spake 

Fell rancor, malice deep, wherein he died; 

And round in Ahasuerus the great king; 

Esther his bride; and Mordecai the just, 
Blameless in word and deed. As of itself 

That unsubstantial coinage of the brain 

Burst, like a bubble, when the water fails 

That fed it; in my vision straight uprose 

A damsel? weeping loud, and cried, “O queen! 
O mother! wherefore has intemperate ire 


Driven thee to loathe thy being? 


Not to lose 


Lavinia, desperate thou hast slain thyself. 


Now hast thou lost me. 


Iam she, whose tears 


Mourn, ere I fall, a mother’s timeless end.” 
F’en as a sleep breaks off, if suddenly 
New radiance strike upon the closed lids, 


a 6“ —— The bird, that most 

Delights itself in song.” 
I cannot think with Vellutello, that the 
swallow is here meant. Dante probably 
alludes to the story of Philomela, as it 
is found in Homer’s “‘ Odyssey,” b. xix. 
§18, rather than as later poets have told 
it. ‘‘ She intended to slay the son of 
her husband’s brother Amphion, incited 
to it by the envy of his wife, who had 


six children, while herself had only two, 
but through mistake slew her own son 
Itylus, and for her punishment was 
transformed by Jupiter into a nightin- 
gale.”’ 

2“ A damsel.” Lavinia, mourning for 
her mother Amata, who, impelled by 
grief and indignation for the supposed 
death of Turnus, destroyed herself. 


212 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The broken slumber quivering ere it dies; 

Thus, from before me, sunk the imagery, 

Vanishing, soon as on my face there struck 

The light, outshining far our earthly beam. 

As round I turn’d me to survey what place 

I had arrived at, “ Here ye mount ”: exclaim’d 

A voice, that other purpose left me none 

Save will so eager to behold who spake, 

I could not choose but gaze. As ’fore the sun, 

That weighs our vision down, and veils his form 

In light transcendent, thus my virtue fail’d 

Unequal. “This is Spirit from above, . 

Who marshals us our upward way, unsought; 

And in his own light shrouds him. As a man 

Doth for himself, so now is done for us. 

For whoso waits imploring, yet sees need 

Of his prompt aidance, sets himself prepared 

For blunt denial, ere the suit be made. 

Refuse we not to lend a ready foot 

At such inviting: haste we to ascend, 

Before it darken: for we may not then, 

Till morn again return.” So spake my guide; 

And to one ladder both address’d our steps; 

And the first stair approaching, I perceived 

Near me as ’t were the waving of a wing, 

That fann’d my face, and whisper’d: “ Blessed they, 

The peace-makers: they know not evil wrath.” 
Now to such height above our heads were raised 

The last beams, follow’d close by hooded night, 

That many a star on all sides through the gloom 

Shone out. “ Why partest from me, O my strength?” 

So with myself I communed; for I felt © 

My o’ertoil’d sinews slacken. We had reach’d 

The summit, and were fix’d like to a bark 

Arrived at land.. And waiting a short space, 

If aught should meet mine ear in that new round, 

Then to my guide I turn’d, and said: “ Loved sire! 

Declare what guilt is on this circle purged. 

If our feet rest, no need thy speech should pause.” 
He thus tome: “ The love of good, whate’er 


PURGATORY ; 213 


Wanted of just proportion, here fulfils. 

Here plies afresh the oar, that loiter’d ill. 

But that thou mayst yet clearlier understand, 

Give ear unto my words; and thou shalt cull 

Some fruit may please thee well, from this delay. 
“ Creator, nor created being, e’er, 

My son,” he thus began, “ was without love, 

Or natural, or the free spirit’s growth, 

Thou hast not that to learn. The natural still 

Is without error: but the other swerves, 

If on ill object bent, or thought excess 

Of vigor, or defect. While e’er it seeks 

The primal blessings,® or with measure due 

The inferior,* no delight, that flows from it, 

Partakes of ill. But let it warp to evil, 

Or with more ardor than behoves, or less, 

Pursue the good; the thing created then 

Works ’gainst its Maker. Hence thou must infer 

That love is germin of each virtue_in_ ye, 

And of SHeIract G6 Tess, that merits pain. $ 

Now ® since it may not be, but love intend 

The welfare mainly of the thing it loves, 

All from self-hatred are secure: and sinc 

No being can be thought to exist apart, 

And independent of the first, a bar 

Of equal force restrains from hating that. 
“Grant the distinction just; and it remains 

The evil must be another’s, which is loved. 

Three ways such love is gender’d in your clay. 

There is ° who hopes (his neighbor’s worth deprest) 

Pre-eminence himself; and covets hence, 

For his own greatness, that another fall. 

There is’? who so much fears the loss of power, 

Fame, favor, glory (should his fellow mount 

Above him), and so sickens at the thought, 

He loves their opposite: and there is he,® 


®“ The primal blessings.” Spiritual ists. We can therefore only rejoice ip 


good. | the evil which befalls others. 

4“ The inferior.”” Temporal good. 6‘ There is.” The proud. 

5“ Now.” “It is impossible for any 17“ There is.” The envious. 
being, either to hate itself, or to hate 8 There is he.” The resentful, 


_the First Cause of all, by which it ex- 


214 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Whom wrong or insult seems to gall and shame, 
That he doth thirst for vengeance; and such needs 
Must dote on other’s evil. Here beneath, 
This threefold love is mourn’d. Of the other sort 
Be now instructed; that which follows good, 
But with disorder’d and irregular course. 
“All indistinctly apprehend a bliss, 
On which the soul may rest; the hearts of al! 
Yearn after it; and to that wished bourn 
All therefore strive to tend. If ye behold, 
Or seek it, with a love remiss and lax; 
This cornice, after just repenting, lays 
Its penal torment on ye. Other good 
There is, where man finds not his happiness: 
It is not true fruition; not that blest 
Essence, of every good the branch and root. 
The love too lavishly bestow’d on this, 
Along three circles over us, is mourn’d. 
Account of that division tripartite 
Expect not, fitter for thine own research.” 


CANTO XVIII 
ARGUMENT.—Virgil discourses further concernin : 


Veta ey emnern a eRe | UREPE two of whom in van of the 
rest, record instances of zeal an rvent affection, and another, 
who was Abbot of San Zeno in Verona, declares himself to Virgi 
and Dante; and lastly follow other spirits, shouting forth memorable 


examples of the sin for which they suffer: The Poet,pursuing his 


meditations, falls into a dreamy slumber. 
A CA genre eet et ptt erence tne te 


HE teacher ended, and his high discourse 
Concluding, earnest in my looks inquired 
If I appear’d content; and I, whom still 
Unsated thirst to hear him urged, was mute, 
Mute outwardly, yet inwardly I said: 
“ Perchance my too much questioning offends.” 
But he, true father, mark’d the secret wish 
By diffidence restrain’d; and, speaking, gave 
Me boldness thus to speak: “ Master! my sight 


ee ee Oe ee ee 


PURGATORY 215 


Gathers so lively virtue from thy beams, 
That all, thy words convey, distinct is seen. 
Wherefore I pray thee, father, whom this heart 
Holds dearest, thou wouldst deign by proof t’ unfold 
That love, from which, as from their source, thou bring’st 
All good deeds and their opposite.” He then: 
“To what I now disclose be thy clear ken 
Directed; and thou plainly shalt behold 
How much those blind have err’d, who make themselves 
The guides of men. The soul, created apt 
To love, moves versatile which way soe’er 
ught pleasing prompts her, soon as she is waked 
y pleasure into act. Of substance true 
Your apprehension forms its counterfeit; 
And, in you the ideal shape presenting, 
Attracts the soul’s regard. If she, thus drawn, 
Incline toward it; love is that inclining, 
And a new nature knit by pleasure in ye. 
Then, as the fire points up, and mounting seeks 
His birth-place and his lasting seat, e’en thus 
Enters the captive soul into desire, 
Which is a spiritual motion, that ne’er rests 
Before enjoyment of the thing it loves. 
Enough to show thee, how the truth from those 
Is hidden, who aver all love a thing 
Praiseworthy in itself; although perhaps 
Its matter seem still good. Yet if the wax 
Be good, it follows not the impression must.” 
“What love_is,” I return’d, “thy words, O guide! 
Ant-myown dowile mind, reveal. Yet thence 
New doubts have sprung. For, from without, if love 
Be offer’d to us, and the spirit knows 
No other footing; tend she right or wrong, 
Is no desert of hers.” He answering thus: 
“What reason here discovers, I have power 


To show thee: that which yond, expect 
From Beatrice, faith not-reason's_task. 
Spirit, substantial form, with matter join’d, 


Not in confusion mix’d, hath in itself 
Specific virtue of that union born, 


216 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Which is not felt except it work, nor proved 
But through effect, as vegetable life 


By the green leaf. 


From whence his intellect 


Deduced its primal notices of things, 

Man therefore knows not, or his appetites 
Their first affections; such in you, as zeal 

In bees to gather honey; at the first, 

Volition, meriting nor blame nor praise. 

But o’er each lower faculty supreme, 

That, as she list, are summon’d to her bar, 

Ye have that virtue’ in you, whose just voice 
Uttereth counsel, and whose word should keep 


The threshold of assent. 


Here is the source, 


Whence cause of merit in you is derived ; 

F’en as the affections, good or ill, she takes, 

Or severs, winnow’d as the chaff. Those men,? 
Who, reasoning, went to depth profoundest, mark’d 
That innate freedom; and were thence induced 
To leave their moral teaching to the world. 

Grant then, that from necessity arise 


All lows within you; to dismiss 
r harbor it, the power_is_ in yourselves. 


_Remember,—Beatrice, in her style, 


ominates free choice b 


eminence 


See noble are if in talk with thee 

e touch upon that theme.” The mggn, well nigh 
To midnight hour belated, made the stars 
Appear to wink and fade; and her broad disk 
Seem’d like a crag on fire, as up the vault® 
That course she journey’d, which the sun then warms; 
When they of Rome behold him at his set 
Betwixt Sardinia and the Corsic isle. 
And now the weight, that hung upon my thought, 
Was lighten’d by the aid of that clear spirit, 
Who raiseth Andes* above Mantua’s name. 
I therefore, when my questions had obtain’d 


1“ That virtue.”? Reason. 

2** Those men.” The great moral phil- 
osophers among the heathen. 

3“ Up the vault.” The moon passed 
with a motion opposite to that of the 
heavens, through the constellation of 
the Scorpion, in which the sun is, when 


to those who are in Rome he appears to 
= between the isles of Corsica and Sar- 

Inia, ; 

4“ Andes.” Andes, now Pietola, made 
more famous than Mantua, near which it 
is situated, Dy, having been the Lirthe 
place of Virgil. 


— 


PURGATORY a1] 


Solution plain and ample, stood as one 
Musing in dreamy slumber; but not long 
Slumber’d ; poe succor a mate, 

The steep already turning from behind, 
Rush’d on. With fury and like random rout, 
As echoing on their shores at midnight heard 
Ismenus and Asopus,® for his Thebes 

If Bacchus’ help were needed; so came these 
Tumultuous, curving each his rapid step, 

By eagerness impell’d of holy love. 

Soon they o’ertook us; with such swiftness moved 
The mighty crowd. Two spirits at their head 
Cried, weeping, “ Blessed Mary® sought with haste 
The hilly region. Cesar,’ to subdue 
Ilerda, darted in Marseilles his sting, 

And flew to Spain.” ‘Oh, tarry not: away!” 
The others shouted; “let not time be lost 
Through slackness of affection. Hearty zeal 
To serve reanimates celestial grace.” 

“O ye! in whom intenser fervency 
Haply supplies, where lukewarm erst ye fail’d, 
Slow or neglectful, to absolve your part 
Of good and virtuous; this man, who yet lives 
(Credit my tale, though strange), desires to ascend, 
So morning rise to light us. Therefore say 
Which hand leads nearest to the rifted rock.” 

So spake my guide; to whom a shade return’d: 
“Come after us, and thou shalt find the cleft. 
We may not linger: such resistless. will 
Speeds our unwearied course. Vouchsafe us then 
Thy pardon, if our duty seem to thee 
Discourteous rudeness. In Verona I 
Was Abbot® of San Zeno, when the hand 
Of Barbarossa grasp’d imperial sway, 

That name e’er utter’d without tears in Milan 


6 ** Tsmenus and Asopus.” Rivers near plete the siege of Marseilles, and has- 


Thebes tened on to the attack of Afranius and 
Aes Mary. »”» “ And Mary arose in those Petreius, the generals of Pompey, at 

days, and went into the hill country Tlerda (Lerida) in Spain 

with haste, into a city of Judah; and & Abbot,” Aifierto, TABBOE of San 

entered into the house of Zacharias, and Zeno in Verona, when Frederick I was 

saluted Elisabeth.”—Luke, i. Emperor, by whom Milan was besieged 


39, 
‘* Cesar.” Czesar left Brutus ti cont and reduced to ashes, in 1162. 


218 THE DIVINE COMEDY 

And there is he,® hath one foot in his grave, 
Who for that monastery ere long shall weep, 
Ruing his power misused: for that his son, 
Of body ill compact, and worse in mind, 

And born in evil, he hath set in place 

Of its true pastor.” Whether more he spake, 
Or here was mute, I know not: he had sped 
E’en now so far beyond us. Yet thus much 

I heard, and in remembrance treasured it. 

He then, who never fail’d me at my need, 
Cried, “ Hither turn. Lo! two with sharp remorse 
Chiding their sin.” In rear of all the troop 
These shouted: ‘“ First they died,’° to whom the sea 
Open’d, or ever Jordan saw his heirs: 

And they,? who with A*neas to the end 
Endured not suffering, for their portion chose 
Life without glory.” Soon as they had fled 
Past reach of sight, new thought within me rose 
By others follow’d fast, and each unlike 

Its fellow: till led on from thought to thought, 
And pleasured with the fleeting train, mine eye 
Was closed, and meditation changed to dream. 


CANTO XIX 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet, after describing his dream, relates how, at the 
summoning of an angel, he ascends with Virgil to the fifth cornice, 
where the sin of avarice is cleansed, and where he finds Pope 
Adrian V. 


T was the hour, when of diurnal heat 
No reliques chafe the cold beams of the moon, 
O’erpower’d by earth, or planetary sway 
Of Saturn; and the geomancer? sees 
His Greater Fortune up the east ascend, 


9“ There is he.”” Alberto della Scala, 1‘ The hour.” Near the dawn. 


Lord of Verona, who had made his natu- 
ral son Abbot of San Zeno. 

10“ First they died.” The Israelites, 
who on account of their disobedience 
died before Vsaimere Sid promised land. 

1“ And they.” ose Trojans, who, 
wearied with their voyage, chose rather 
to remain in Sicily with Acestes, than 
accompany Aineas to Italy. 


2“* The geomancer.”” The geomancers, 
when they divined, drew a figure con- 
sisting of sixteen marks, named from so 
many stars which constitute the end of 
Aquarius and the beginning of Pisces. 
One of these they called “the greater 
fortune.” 


PURGATORY 219 
Where gray dawn checkers first the shadowy cone; 
When, ’fore me in my dream, a woman’s shape? 
There came, with lips that stammer’d, eyes aslant, 
Distorted feet, hands maim’d, and color pale. 

I look’d upon her: and, as sunshine cheers 
Limbs numb’d by nightly cold, e’en thus my look 
Unloosed her tongue; next, in brief space, her form 
Decrepit raised erect, and faded face 
With love’s own hue illumed. Recovering speech, 
She forthwith, warbling, such a strain began, 
That I, how loath soe’er, could scarce have held 
Attention from the song. “I,” thus she sang, 
“T am the Siren, she, whom mariners 
On the wide sea are wilder’d when they hear: 
Such fulness of delight the listener feels. 
I, from his course, Ulysses* by my lay 
Enchanted drew. Whoe’er frequents me once, 
Parts seldom: so J charm him, and his heart 
Contented knows no void.” Or ere her mouth 
Was closed, to shame her, at my side appear’d 
A dame® of semblance holy. With stern voice 
She utter’'d: “Say, O Virgil! who is this?” 
Which hearing, he approach’d, with eyes still bent 
Toward that goodly presence: the other seized her, 
And, her robes tearing, open’d her before, 
And show’d the belly to me, whence a smell, 
Exhaling loathsome, waked me. Round I turn’d 
Mine eyes: and thus the teacher: “ At the least 
Three times my voice hath call’d thee. Rise, begone. 
Let us the opening find where thou mayst pass.” 

I straightway rose. Now day, pour’d down from high, 
Fill’d all the circuits of the sacred mount; 
And, as we journey’d, on our shoulder smote 
The early ray. I follow’d, stooping low 
My forehead, as a man, o’ercharged with thought, 


8 «A woman’s shape.” Worldly hap- 
iness. This allegory reminds us of the 


suppose that she is here represented as 
purposely deviating from the truth. Or 


‘Choice of Hercules.”’ 

#“ Ulysses.” It is not easy to deter- 
miine a Ulysses, contrary to the au- 
thority of Homer, is said to have been 
drawn aside from his course by the song 
of the Siren. No improbable way of ac- 
counting for the contradiction is, to 


Dante may have followed some legend 
of the Middle Ages, in which the wan- 
derings of Ulysses were represented 
otherwise than in Homer. 

6“ A dame.”’ Philosophy, or perhaps 
Truth. 


220 | THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Who bends him to the likeness of an arch 

That midway spans the flood; when thus I heard, 
“Come, enter here,” in tone so soft and mild, 
As never met the ear on mortal strand. 

With swan-like wings dispred and pointing up, 

Who thus had spoken marshal’d us along, 

Where, each side of the solid masonry, 

The sloping walls retired; then moved his plumes, 
And fanning us, affirm’d that those, who mourn,® 
Are blessed, for that comfort shall be theirs. 

“What aileth thee, that still thou look’st to earth?” 
Began my leader; while the angelic shape 
A little over us his station took. 

“ New vision,’ I replied, “hath raised in me 
Surmisings strange and anxious doubts, whereon 
My soul intent allows no other thought 
Or room, or entrance.” “ Hast thou seen,” said he, 
“That old enchantress, her, whose wiles alone 
The spirits o’er us weep for? Hast thou seen 
How man may free him of her bonds? Enough. 
Let thy heels spurn the earth; and thy raised ken 
Fix on the lure, which heaven’s eternal King 
Whirls in the rolling spheres.” As on his feet 
The falcon first looks down, then to the sky 
Turns, and forth stretches eager for the food, 

That woos him thither; so the call I heard: 
So onward, far as the dividing rock 
Gave way, I journey’d, till the plain was reach’d. 
On the fifth circle when I stood at large, 
A race appear’d before me, on the ground 
All downward lying prone and weeping sore. 
“My soul hath cleaved to the dust,” I heard 
With sighs so deep, they well nigh choked the words. 

““O ye elect of God! whose penal woes 
Both hope and justice mitigate, direct 
Toward the steep rising our uncertain way.” 

“Tf ye approach secure from this our doom, 
Prostration, and would urge your course with speed, 
See that ye still to rightward keep the brink.” . 


6‘* Who mourn.” ‘ Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be com 
forted.”’—Matt. v. 4. 


PURGATORY 221 


So them the bard besought; and such the words, 
Beyond us some short space, in answer came. 

I noted what remain’d yet hidden from them:7 
Thence to my liege’s eyes mine eyes I bent, 
And he, forthwith interpreting their suit, 
Beckon’d his glad assent. Free then to act 
As pleased me, I drew near, and took my stand 
Over that shade whose words I late had mark’d. 
And, “ Spirit!’’ I said, “in whom repentant tears 
Mature that blessed hour when thou with God 
Shalt find acceptance, for a while suspend 
For me that mightier care. Say who thou wast; 
Why thus ye grovel on your bellies prone; 

And if, in naught, ye wish my service there, 
Whence living I am come.’ He answering spake: 
“The cause why Heaven our back toward his cope 
Reverses, shalt thou know: but me know first, 
The successor of Peter,® and the name 

And title of my lineage, from that stream® 

That ’twixt Chiaveri and Siestri draws 

His limpid waters through the lowly glen. 

A month and little more by proof I learnt, 

With what a weight that robe of sovereignty 
Upon his shoulder rests, who from the mire 
Would guard it; that each other fardel seems 

But feathers in the balance. Late, alas! 

Was my conversion: but, when I became 

Rome’s pastor, I discerned at once the dream 
And cozenage of life; saw that the heart 

Rested -not there, and yet no prouder height 
Lured on the climber: wherefore, of that life 

No more enamor’d, in my bosom love 

Of purer being kindled. For till then 

‘I was a soul in misery, alienate 

From God, and covetous of all earthly things; 
Now, as thou seest, here punish’d for my doting. 


7™**T noted what remain’d yet hidden 
from them.’”’ They were ignorant, it ap- 
peared, whether Dante was come there 
to reed of his sins. 

8“ The successor of Peter.’? Ottobu- 
ono, of the family of Fieschi, Counts of 
Lavagno, died thirty-nine days after he 


became Pope, with the title of Adrian V, 
in 1276. a 

9** That stream.” The river Lavagno, 
in the Genoese territory; to the east of 
which territory are situated Siestri and 
Chiaveri. 


222 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Such cleansing from the taint of avarice, 
Do spirits, converted, need. This mount inflicts 
No direr penalty. E’en as our eyes 
Fasten’d below, nor e’er to loftier clime 
Were lifted; thus hath justice level’d us, 
Here on the earth. As avarice quench’d our love 
Of good, without which is no working; thus 
Here justice holds us prison’d, hand and foot 
Chain’d down and bound, while heaven’s just Lord shall please, 
So long to tarry, motionless, outstretch’d.”’ 
My knees I stoop’d and would have spoke; but he, 
Ere my beginning, by his ear perceived 
I did him reverence; and “‘ What cause,” said he, 
“Hath bow’d thee thus?” “ Compunction,” I rejoin’d, 
“ And inward awe of your high dignity.” 
“Up,” he exclaim’d, “brother! upon thy feet 
Arise; err not: thy fellow-servant I, 
(Thine and all others’) of one Sovereign Power, 
If thou hast ever mark’d those holy sounds 
Of gospel truth, ‘nor shall be given in marriage,’ 
Thou mayst discern the reasons of my speech. 
Go thy ways now; and linger here no more. 
Thy tarrying is a let unto the tears, 
With which I hasten that whereof thou speakest. 
I have on earth a kinswoman;?° her name 
Alagia, worthy in herself, so ill. 
Example of our house corrupt her not: 
And she is all remaineth of me there.” 
10 A kinswoman.” Alagia is said to tectors during his exile. See Canto viii. 


have been the wife of the Marchese Mar- 133. 
cello Malaspina, one of the Poet’s pro- 


PURGATORY 223 


CANTO XX 


ARGUMENT.—Among those on the fifth cornice, Hugh Capet records 
illustrious examples of voluntary poverty and of bounty; then tells 
who himself is, and speaks of his descendants on the French throne; 
and, lastly, adds some noted instances of avarice. When he has 
ended, the mountain shakes, and all the spirits sing “‘ Glory to God.” 


LL strives the will, ’gainst will more wise that strives: 
His pleasure therefore to mine own preferr’d, 
I drew the sponge yet thirsty from the wave. 

Onward I moved: he also onward moved, 

Who led me, coasting still, wherever place 

Along the rock was vacant; as a man 

Walks near the battlements on narrow wall. 

For those on the other part, who drop by drop 

Wring out their all-infecting malady, 

Too closely press the verge. Accurst be thou, 

Inveterate wolf!* whose gorge ingluts more prey, 

Than every beast beside, yet is not fill’d; 

So bottomless thy maw.—Ye spheres of heaven! 

To whom there are, as seems, who attribute 

All change in mortal state, when is the day 

Of his appearing,” for whom fate reserves 

To chase her hence?—With wary steps and slow 

We pass’d; and I attentive to the shades, 

Whom piteously I heard lament and wail; 

And, ’midst the wailing, one before us heard 

Cry out “O blessed Virgin!” as a dame 

In the sharp pangs of childbed; and “ How poor 

Thou wast,” it added, ‘“ witness that low roof 

Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down. 

© good Fabricius! thou didst virtue choose 

With poverty, before great wealth with vice.” 
The words so pleased me, that desire to know 

The spirit, from whose lip they seem’d to come, 

Did draw me onward. Yet it spake the gift 

Of Nicholas,? which on the maidens he 


1“ Wolf.” Avarice. 8“ Nicholas.”” The story of Nicholas 
2“ Of his appearing.”” He is thought is, that an angel having revealed to him 
to allude to Can Grande della Scala. that the father of a family was so im- 
See “ Hell,”’ Canto i. 98. poverished as to resolve on exposing the 


224 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Bounteous bestow’d, to save their youthful prime 


Unblemish’d. 


“Spirit! who dost speak of deeds 


So worthy, tell me who thou wast,” I said, 
“ And why thou dost with single voice renew 


Memorial of such praise. 


That boon vouchsafed 


Haply shall meet reward; if I return 
To finish the short pilgrimage of life, 
Still speeding to its close on restless wing.” 

“T,” answer’d he, “ will tell thee; not for help, 
Which thence I look for; but that in thyself 
Grace so exceeding shines, before thy time 


Of mortal dissolution. 


I was root* 


Of that ill plant whose shade such poison sheds 

O’er all the Christian land, that seldom thence 

Good fruit is gather’d. Vengeance soon should come, 
Had Ghent and Douay, Lille and Bruges power ;° 
And vengeance I of heaven’s great Judge implore. 
Hugh Capet was I hight: from me descend 

The Philips and the Louis, of whom France 

Newly is govern’d: born of one, who plied 


The slaughterer’s trade® at Paris. 


When the race 


Of ancient kings had vanish’d (all save one* 
Wrapt up in sable weeds) within my gripe 

I found the reins of empire, and such powers 
Of new acquirement, with full store of friends, 
That soon the widow’d circlet of the crown 
Was girt upon the temples of my son,°® 

He, from whose bones the anointed race begins. 


chastity of his three daughters to sale, 
he threw in at the window of their house 
three bags of money, containing a suffh- 
cient portion for each of them. 

4* Root.”” Hugh Capet, ancestor of 
Philip IV. 

5“ Had Ghent and Douay, Lille and 
Bruges power.” These cities had lately 
been seized by Philip IV. The spirit 
is made to intimate the approaching de- 
feat of the French army by the Flem- 
ings, in the battle of Courtrai, which 
happened in 1302. 

6“ The slaughterer’s trade.’”? This 
reflection on the birth of his ancestor, 
induced Francis I to forbid the reading 
of Dante in his dominions. Hugh Ca- 
pet, who came to the throne of France 
in 0987, was, however, the grandson of 
Robert, who was the brother of Eudes, 
King of France in 888; and it may, 


therefore, well be questioned whether 
by Beccaio di Parigi is meant literally 
one who carried on the trade of 3 
butcher, at Paris, and whether the 
sanguinary disposition of Hugh Capet’s 
father is not stigmatized by this oppro- 
brious appellation. 

7** All save one.” The posterity of 
Charlemagne, the second race of French 
monarchs, had failed, with the excep- 


tion of Charles of Lorraine, who is said, ~ 


on account of the melancholy temper of 
his mind, to have always clothed him- 
self in black. Venturi suggests that 
Dante may have confounded him with 
Childeric ITI, the last of the Merovin- 
gian, or first race, who was deposed and 
made a monk in 7s1. 

8“ My son.” Hugh Capet caused his 
son Robert to be crowned at Orleans. 


PURGATORY 


225 


Till the great dower of Provence® had removed 
The stains, that yet obscured our lowly blood, 
Its sway indeed was narrow; but howe’er 

It wrought no evil: there, with force and lies, 
Began its rapine: after, for amends, 

Poitou it seized, Navarre and Gascony. 

To Italy came Charles; and for amends, 

Young Conradine,” an innocent victim, slew; 
And sent the angelic teacher™ back to heaven, 


Still for amends. 


I see the time at hand, 


That forth from France invites another Charles* 
To make himself and kindred better known. 
Unarm’d he issues, saving with that lance, 

Which the arch-traitor tilted with,“ and that 

He carries with so home a thrust, as rives 


The bowels of poor Florence. 


No increase 


Of territory hence, but sin and shame 

Shall be his guerdon; and so much the more 
As he more lightly deems of such foul wrong. 
I see the other** (who a prisoner late 

Had stepped on shore) exposing to the mart 

His daughter, whom he bargains for, as do 


The Corsairs for their slaves. 


O avarice! 


What canst thou more, who hast subdued our blood 
So wholly to thyself, they feel no care 


9“ The great dower of Provence.” 
Louis IX and his brother Charles of 
Anjou, married two of the four daugh- 
ters of Raymond Berenger, Count of 
Provence. See ‘ Paradise,” c. vi. 135. 

10“* Young Conradine.” Charles of 
Anjou put Conradino to death in 1268, 
and became King of Naples. 

11“ The angelic teacher.”” Thomas 
Aquinas. He was reported to have been 

isoned by a physician, who wished to 
ingratiate himself with Charles of An- 
ou. “In the year 1323, at the end of 
uly, by the said Pope John and by his 
cardinals, was canonized at Avignon 
Thomas Aquinas, of the order of Saint 
Dominic, a master in avi and phil: 
osophy, a man most excellent in all 
science, and who expounded the sense 
of pid ag oid better than anyone since the 
time o eae: He lived in the time 
of Charles I, King of Sicily; and going 
to the Council at Lyons, it is said that 
he was killed by a physician of the said 
King, who put poison for him into some 
sweetmeats, thinking to ingratiate him- 
self with King Charles, because he was 
of the lineage of the Lords of Aquino, 


who had rebelled against the King, and 
doubting lest he should be made car- 
dinal; whence the Church of God re- 
ceived great damage. He died at the 
abbey of Fossanova, in Campagna.” 

12 “ Another Charles.” Charles of Va- 
lois, brother of Philip IV, was sent by 
Pope Boniface VIII to settle the dis- 
turbed state of Florence. In conse- 

uence of the measures he adopted for 
that purpose, our Poet and his friends 
were condemned to exile and death. 

18 “ —___ with that lance, 

Which the arch-traitor tilted with.” 

If I remember right, in one of the old 
romances, Judas is represented tilting 
with our Saviour. 

14“ The other.” Charles, King of Na- 
pes the eldest son of Charles of Anjou, 

aving, contrary to the directions of his 
father, engaged with Ruggieri de Lauria, 
the admiral of Peter of Arragon, was 
made prisoner, and carried into Sicily, 
June, 1284. He afterward, in considera- 
tion of a large sum of money, married 
his daughter to Azzo VIII, Marquis of 
Ferrara. 


226 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Of their own flesh? 


To hide with direr guilt 


Past ill and future, lo! the flower-de-luce*® 
Enters Alagna; in his Vicar Christ 
Himself a captive, and his mockery 


Acted again. 


Lo! to his holy lip 


The vinegar and gall once more applied; 
And he ’twixt living robbers doom’d to bleed. 
Lo! the new Pilate, of whose cruelty 

Such violence cannot fill the measure up, 
With no decree to sanction, pushes on 

Into the temple*® his yet eager sails. 

“© sovereign Master! when shall I rejoice 
To see the vengeance, which thy wrath, well-pleased, 
In secret silence broods?—While daylight lasts, 
So long what thou didst hear of her, sole spouse 
Of the Great Spirit, and on which thou turn’dst 
To me for comment, is the general theme 
Of all our prayers: but, when it darkens, then 
A different strain we utter; then record 
Pygmalion, whom his gluttonous thirst of gold 
Made traitor, robber, parricide: the woes 
Of Midas, which his greedy wish ensued, 
Mark’d for derision to all future times: 

And the fond Achan,’* how he stole the prey, 
That yet he seems by Joshua’s ire pursued. 
Sapphira with her husband next we blame; 
And praise the fore feet, that with furious ramp 


Spurn’d Heliodorus.*® 


All the mountain round 


Rings with the infamy of Thracia’s king,’® 
Who slew his Phrygian charge: and last a shout 


15“° The flower-de-luce.”’ Boniface VIII 
was seized at Alagna in Campagna, by 
the order of Philip IV, in the year 1303, 
and soon after died of grief. G. Villani, 
lib. viii. cap. Ixiii: ‘‘As it pleased God, 
the heart of Boniface being petrified 
with grief, through the injury he had 
sustained, when he came to Rome, he 
fell into a strange malady, for he gnawed 
himself as one frantic, and in this state 
expired.” His character is strongly 
drawn by the annalist in the next chap- 
ter. Thus, says Landino, was verified 
the prophecy of Celestine respecting 
him, that he should enter on the pope- 
dom like a fox, reign like a lion, and 
die like a dog. 


16“ Into the temple.” It is uncertain 
whether our Poet alludes still to the 
event mentioned in the preceding note, 
or to the destruction of the order of the 
Templars in 1310, but the latter appears 
more probable. 

17“* Achan.” Joshua vii. 

18 “* Heliodorus.” “ For there appeared 
unto them an horse, with a terrible rider 
upon him, and adorned with a very fair 
covering, and he ran fiercely and smote 
at Heliodorus with his fore feet.” 2 
Macc. iii. 25. 

19 “ Thracia’s king.”’ Polymnestor, the 
murderer of Polydorus. “ Hell,’’ Canto 
XXX. 19. 


: 
; 
; 
: 


PURGATORY 227 


Ascends: ‘ Declare, O Crassus!?° for thou know’st, 
The flavor of thy gold. The voice of each 
Now high, now low, as each his impulse prompts, 
Is led through many a pitch, acute or grave. 
Therefore, not singly, I erewhile rehearsed 
That blessedness we tell of in the day: 
But near me, none, beside, his accent raised.” 
From him we now had parted, and essay’d 
With utmost efforts to surmount the way; 
When I did feel, as nodding to its fall, 
The mountain tremble; whence an icy chill 
Seized on me, as on one to death convey’d. 
So shook not Delos, when Latona there 
Couch’d to bring forth the twin-born eyes of heaven. 
Forthwith from every side a shout arose 
So vehement, that suddenly my guide 
Drew near, and cried: “ Doubt not, while I conduct thee.” 
“Glory!” all shouted (such the sounds mine ear 
Gather’d from those, who near me swell’d the sounds) 
“Glory in the highest be to God.” We stood 
Immovably suspended, like to those, 
The shepherds, who first heard in Bethlehem’s field 
That song: till ceased the trembling, and the song 
Was ended: then our hallow’d path resumed, 
Eying the prostrate shadows, who renew’d 
Their custom’d mourning. Never in my breast 
Did ignorance so struggle with desire 
Of knowledge, if my memory do not err, 
As in that moment; nor through haste dared I 
To question, nor myself could aught discern. 
So on I fared, in thoughtfulness and dread. 


2 ** Crassus.”” Marcus Crassus, who fell miserably in the Parthian was. 


228 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXI 


ARGUMENT.—The two Poets are overtaken by the spirit of Statius, who, 
being cleansed, is on his way to Paradise, and who explains the 
cause of the mountain shaking, and of the hymn; his joy at behold- 

ing Wigs a 


but_from the well? 
Wherot the woman isan raed 
Excite aste, along the cumber’d path, 
After my guide, impeil’d; and pity moved 
My bosom for the *vengeful doom though just. 
When lo! even as Luke? relates, that Chris 
Appear’d unto the two upon their way, 
New-risen from his vaulted grave; to us 
A shade appear’d, and after us approach’d, 
Contemplating the crowd beneath its feet. 
We were not ware of it; so first it spake, 
Saying, “ God give you peace, my brethren! ” then 
Sudden we turn’d: and Virgil such salute, 
As fitted that kind greeting, gave; and cried: 
“ Peace in the blessed council be thy lot, 
Awarded by that righteous court which me 
To everlasting banishment exiles.” 

“ How!” he exclaim’d, nor from his speed meanwhile 
Desisting; “If that ye be spirits whom God 
Vouchsafes not room above; who up the height 
Has been thus far your guide?” To whom the bard: 
“If thou observe the tokens,? which this man, 

Traced by the finger of the angel, bears; 

’Tis plain that in the kingdom of the just 

He needs must share. But sithence she,* whose wheel 
Spins day and night, for him not yet had drawn 

That yarn, which on the fatal distaff piled, 

Clotho apportions to each wight that breathes; 

His soul, that sister is to mine and thine, 

Not of herself could mount; for not like ours 


1“ The well.” “The woman saith by the Angel, in order to his being 
unto him, Sir, give me this water, that cleared of them in his passage through 
I thirst not. alobpei ts Purgatory to Paradise. 

.T ake.” AChapter ok “She.” Lachesis, one of the three 


a « The tokens. oP The fetter *p for Pec- fates. 
cata, sins, inscribed upon his forehead 


PURGATORY 229 


Her ken: whence I, from forth the ample gulf 

Of Hell, was ta’en, to lead him, and will lead 

Far as my lore avails. But, if thou know, 

Instruct us for what cause, the mount erewhile 

Thus shook, and trembled: wherefore all at once 

Seem’d shouting, even from his wave-wash’d foot.” 
That questioning so tallied with my wish, 

The thirst did feel abatement of its edge 

E’en from expectance. He forthwith replied: 

“Tn its devotion, naught irregular | 

This mount can witness, or by punctual rule 

Unsanction’d; here from every change exempt, 

Other than that, which heaven in itself 

Doth of itself receive, no influence 

Can reach us. Tempest none, shower, hail, or snow, 

Hoar frost, or dewy moistness, higher falls 

Than that brief scale of threefold steps: thick clouds, 

Nor scudding rack, are ever seen: swift glance 

Ne’er lightens; nor Thaumantian Iris gleams, 

That yonder often shifts on each side Heaven. 

Vapor adust doth never mount above 

The highest of the trinal stairs, whereon 

Peter’s vicegerent stands. Lower perchance, 

With various motion rock’d, trembles the soil: 

But here, through wind in earth’s deep hollow pent, 

I know not how, yet never trembled: then 

Trembles, when any spirit feels itself 

So purified, that it may rise, or move 

For rising; and such loud acclaim ensues, 

Purification, by the will alone, 

Is proved, that free to change society 

Seizes the soul rejoicing in her will. 

Desire of bliss is present from the first; 

But strong propension hinders, to that wish 

By the just ordinance of heaven opposed; 

Propension now as eager to fulfil 

The allotted torment, as erewhile to sin. 

And I, who in this punishment had lain 

Five hundred years and more, but now have felt 


Free wish for happier clime. Therefore thou felt’st 
Classics. Vol. 34—K 


230 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The mountain tremble; and the spirits devout 
Heard’st, over all his limits, utter praise 

To that liege Lord, whom I entreat their joy 

To hasten.” Thus he spake: and, since the draught 
Is grateful ever as the thirst is keen, 

No words may speak my fulness of content. 

“ Now,” said the instructor sage, “I see the net 
That takes ye here; and how the toils are loosed; 
Why rocks the mountain, and why ye rejoice. 

y Vouchsafe, that from thy lips I mext may learn 

i Who on the earth thou wast ; and wherefore here, 
So many an age, were prostrate.” ‘In that time, 
When the good Titus,° with heaven’s King to help, 
Avenged those piteous gashes, whence the blood 
By Judas sold did issue; with the mame® 
Most lasting and most honor’d, there, was I 
Abundantly renown’d,” the shade replied, 
“Not yet with faith endued. So passing sweet 
My vocal spirit; from Tolosa, Rome 
To herself drew me, where I merited 
A myrtle garland to inwreathe my brow. 
Statius they name me still. Of Thebes I sang, 
And next of great Achilles; but 7 the way 
Fell with the second burden. O my flame 
Those sparkles were the seeds, which I derived 
From the bright fountatn of celestial fire 
That feeds unnumber’d lamps; the song I mean 
Which sounds A£neas’ wanderings: that the breast 
I hung at; that the nurse, from whom my veins 
Drank inspiration: whose authority 
Was ever sacred with me. To have lived 
Coeval with the Mantuan, I would bide 
The revolution of another sun 
Beyond my stated years in banishment.” 

The Mantuan, when he heard him, turn’d to me3 
And holding silence, by his countenance 
Enjoin’d me silence: but the power, which wills, 
Bears not supreme control: laughter and tears 


6“ When the good Titus.” When it lem, should avenge the death of ows 
was so ordered by the divine Providence Saviour on the Jews. 
that Titus, by the destruction of Jerusa- 6“ The name.” The name of Poet. 


PURGATORY 


Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, 
They wait not for the motions of the will 

In nature most sincere. I did but smile, 

As one who winks; and thereupon the shade 
Broke off, and peer’d into mine eyes, where best 
Our looks interpret. “So to good event 

Mayst thou conduct such great emprise,” he cried, 
“Say, why across thy visage beam’d, but now, 
The lightning of a smile.” On either part 

Now am I straiten’d; one conjures me speak, 

The other to silence binds me: whence a sigh 

I utter, and the sigh is heard. “ Speak on,” 

The teacher cried: “and do not fear to speak; 
But tell him what so earnestly he asks.” 
Whereon I thus: “ Perchance, O ancient spirit! 
Thou marvel’st at my smiling. There is room 
For yet more wonder. He, who guides my ken 
On high, he is that Mantuan, led by whom 
Thou didst presume of men and gods to sing. 

If other cause thou deem’dst for which I smiled, 
Leave it as not the true one: and believe 


Those words, thou spakest of him, indeed the cause.” 
Now down he bent to embrace my teacher’s feet; 


But he forbade him: “ Brother! do it not: 
Thou art a shadow, and behold’st a shade.” 


He, rising, answer’d thus: “ Now hast thou proved 


The force and ardor of the love I bear thee, 
When I forget we are but things of air, 
_ And, as a substance, treat an empty shade.” 


231 


232 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXII 


ARGUMENT.—Dante, Virgil, and Statius mount to the sixth cornice, 
where the sin of gluttony is cleansed, the two Latin Poets discours- 
ing by the way. Turning to the right, they find a tree hung with 
sweet-smelling fruit, and watered by a shower that issues from the 
rock. Voices are heard to proceed from among the leaves, record- 
ing examples of temperance. 


OW we had left the angel, who had turn’d 
To the sixth circle our ascending step; 
One gash from off my forehead razed; while they, 
Whose wishes tend to justice, shouted forth, 
“ Blessed!” + and ended with “I thirst” : and I, 
More nimble than along the other straits, 
So journey’d, that, without the sense of toil, 
I follow’d upward the swift-footed shades; 
When Virgil thus began: “Let its pure flame 
From virtue flow, and love can never fail 
To warm another’s bosom, so the light 
Shine manifestly forth. Hence, from that hour, 
When, ’mongst us in the purlieus of the deep, 
Came down the spirit of Aquinum’s bard, 
Who told of thine affection, my good will 
Hath been for thee of quality as strong 
As ever link’d itself to one not seen. 
Therefore these stairs will now seem short to me. 
But tell me: and, if too secure, I loose 
The rein with a friend’s license, as a friend 
Forgive me, and speak now as with a friend: 
How chanced it covetous desire could find 
Place in that bosom, ’midst such ample store 
Of wisdom, as thy zeal had treasured there? ” 
First somewhat moved to laughter by his words, 

Statius replied: “Each syllable of thine 
Is a dear pledge of love. Things oft appear, 
That minister false matter to our doubts, 
When their true causes are removed from sight. 
Thy question doth assure me, thou believest 


1“ Blessed.” “* Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
for they shall be filled.”—Matt. v. 6. 


PURGATORY 233 


was on earth a covetous man; perhaps 
Because thou found’st me in that circle placed. 
Know then I was too wide of avarice: 
And e’en for that excess, thousands of moons 
Have wax’d and waned upon my sufferings. 
And were it not that I with heedful care 
Noted, where thou exclaim’st as if in ire 
With human nature, ‘ Why, thou cursed thirst 
Of gold! dost not with juster measure guide 
The appetite of mortals?’ I had met 
The fierce encounter of the voluble rock. 
Then was I ware that, with too ample wing, 
The hands may haste to lavishment; and turn’d, 
As from my other evil, so from this, 
In penitence. How many from their grave 
Shall with shorn locks ? arise, who living, ay, 
And at life’s last extreme, of this offence, 
Through ignorance, did not repent! And know, 
The fault, which lies direct from any sin 
In level opposition, here, with that, 
Wastes its green rankness on one common heap. 
Therefore, if I have been with those, who wail 
Their avarice, to cleanse me; through reverse 
Of their transgression, such hath been my lot.” 
To whom the sov’reign of the pastoral song: 
“While thou didst sing that cruel warfare waged 
By the twin sorrow of Jocasta’s womb,? 
From thy discourse with Clio there, it seems 
As faith had not been thine; without the which, 
Good deeds suffice not. And if so, what sun 
Rose on thee, or what candle pierced the dark, 
That thou didst after see to hoist the sail, 
And follow where the fisherman had led? ” 
He answering thus: ‘“ By thee conducted first, 
I enter’d the Parnassian grots, and quaft’d 
Of the clear spring: illumined first by thee, 
Open’d mine eyes to God. Thou didst, as one, 
Who, journeying through the darkness, bears a light 


2“ With shorn locks.” See “ Hell,” 8“ The twin sorrow of  Jocasta’s 
Canto vii, 58. womb.”” Eteocles and Polynices. 


234 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Behind, that profits not himself, but makes 

His followers wise, when thou exclaimed’st, ‘ Lo! 

A renovated world, Justice return’d, 

Times of primeval innocence restored, 

And a new race descended from above.’ 

Poet and Christian both to thee I owed. 

That thou mayst mark more clearly what I trace, 

My hand shall stretch forth to inform the lines 

With livelier coloring. Soon o’er all the world, 

By messengers from Heaven, the true belief 

Teem’d now prolific; and that word of thine, 

Accordant, to the new instructors chimed. 

Induced by which agreement, I was wont 

Resort to them; and soon their sanctity 

So won upon me, that, Domitian’s rage 

Pursuing them, I mix’d my tears with theirs; 

And, while on earth I stay’d, still succor’d them; 

And their most righteous customs made me scorn 

All sects besides. Before I led the Greeks, 

In tuneful fiction, to the streams of Thebes, 

I was baptized: but secretly, through fear, 

Remain’d a Christian, and conform’d long time 

To Pagan rites. Four centuries and more 

I, for that lukewarmness, was fain to pace 

Round the fourth circle. Thou then, who hast raised 

The covering which did hide such blessing from me, 

Whilst much of this ascent is yet to climb, 

Say, if thou know, where our old Terence bides, 

Cecilius, Plautus, Varro: if condemn’d 

They dwell, and in what province of the deep.” 

“ These,” said my guide, “ with Persius and myself, 

And others many more, are with that Greek,* 

Of mortals, the most cherish’d by the nine, 

In the first ward ® of darkness. There, ofttimes, 

We of that mount hold converse, on whose top 

For aye our nurses live. We have the bard 

Of Pella ® and the Teian,? Agatho, 

Simonides, and many a Grecian else | 
4“ That Greek.” Hom 6 “ ——. The bard 


8“ In the first ward.”’ eh Limbo. Of Pella.”? Euripides. 
7“ The Teian.”? Anacreon. 


PURGATORY 235 


Ingarlanded with laurel. Of thy train, 

Antigone is there, Deiphile, 

Argia, and as sorrowful as erst 

Ismene, and who show’d Langia’s wave :® 

Deidamia with her sisters there, 

And blind Tiresias’ daughter,® and the bride 

Sea-born of Peleus.” 1° Either poet now 

Was silent; and no longer by the ascent 

Or the steep walls obstructed, round them cast 

Inquiring eyes. Four handmaids of the day 

Had finish’d now their office, and the fifth 

Was at the chariot-beam, directing still 

Its flamy point aloof; when thus my guide: 

“ Methinks, it well behoves us to the brink 

Bend the right shoulder, circuiting the mount, 

As we have ever used.” So custom there 

Was usher to the road; the which we chose 

Less doubtful, as that worthy shade ** complied. 
They on before me went: I sole pursued, 

Listening their speech, that to my thoughts convey’d 

Mysterious lessons of sweet poesy. 

But soon they ceased; for midway of the road 

A tree we found, with goodly fruitage hung, 

And pleasant to the smell: and as a fir, 

Upward from bough to bough, less ample spreads; 

So downward this less ample spread; that none, 

Methinks, aloft may climb. Upon the side, 

That closed our path, a liquid crystal fell 

From the steep rock, and through the sprays above 

Stream’d showering. With associate step the bards 

Drew near the plant; and, from amidst the leaves, 

A voice was heard: “ Ye shall be chary of me;” 

And after added: ‘“‘ Mary took more thought 

For joy and honor of the nuptial feast, 

Than for herself, who answers now for you. 


@“ Who show’d Langia’s wave.” parent inconsistency, by observing, 
Hypsipile. that although she was placed there as 
8“ Tiresias’ daughter.’’ Dante, as a sinner, yet, as one of famous memory, 


some have thought, had forgotten that she had also a place among the wor- 
he had placed Manto, the daughter_of — thies in Limbo. ‘ 

Tiresias, among the sorcerers. See 10 ““___ The bride ‘ 

** Hell,” Canto xx. Vellutello endeavors, Sea-born of Peleus.” Thetis. 
father awkwardly, to reconcile the ap- il‘* That worthy shade.” Statius. 


236 THE DIVINE COMEDY 
The women of old Rome were satisfied 

With water for their beverage. Daniel ** fed 
On pulse, and wisdom gain’d. The primai age 
Was beautiful as gold: and hunger then 

Made acorns tasteful; thirst, each rivulet 

Run nectar. Honey and locusts were the food, 
Whereon the Baptist in the wilderness 

Fed, and that eminence of glory reach’d 

And greatness, which the Evangelist records.” 


ARGUMENT.—They are overtaken by the spirit of Forese, who had been | 
a friend of our Poet’s on earth, and who now inveighs bitterly 


against the immodest dress of their countrywomen at Florence. 


N the green leaf mine eyes were fix’d, like his 
Who throws away his days in idle chase 


Of the diminutive birds, when thus I heard 
The more than father warn me: ‘Son! our time 


Asks thriftier using. Linger not: away!” 

Thereat my face and steps at once I turn’d 
Toward the sages, by whose converse cheer’d 
I journey’d on, and felt no toil: and lo! 

A sound of weeping, and a song: “ My lips, 
O Lord!” and these so mingled, it gave birth 
To pleasure and to pain. “O Sire beloved! 
Say what is this I hear.”” Thus I inquired. 

“ Spirits,” said he, “ who, as they go, perchance, 
Their debt of duty pay.” As on their road 
The thoughtful pilgrims, overtaking some 
Not known unto them, turn to them, and look, 
But stay not; thus, approaching from behind 
With speedier motion, eyed us, as they pass’d, 


12“ Daniel.” “‘ Then said Daniel to 


and gave them pulse. As for these four 


Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs 
had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mi- 
chael,and Azariah, ‘ Prove thy servants, 
I beseech thee, ten days; and let them 
give us pulse to eat, and water to 
drink,’ ’’—Dan. i. 11, 12. *“‘ Thus Melzar 
took away the portion of their meat, 
and the wine that they should drink: 


children, God gave them knowledge and 
skill in all learning and wisdom: and 
Daniel had understanding in all visions 
and dreams.’’—Ibid. 16, 17. 

1“ My lips.” “O Lord, open thou 
my lips; and my mouth shall show 
forth thy praise.”—Psalm li. 15. 


PURGATORY 


237 


A crowd of spirits, silent and devout. 
The eyes of each were dark and hollow; pale 
Their visage, and so lean withal, the bones 


Stood staring through the skin. 


I do not think 


Thus dry and meagre Erisichthon show’d, 

When pinch’d by sharp-set famine to the quick. 
“Lo!” to myself I mused, “the race, who lost 

Jerusalem, when Mary with dire beak 


Prey’d on her child.” 


From which the gems were dropt. 


The sockets seem’d as rings, 


Who reads the name ? 


Of man upon his forehead, there the M 

Had traced most plainly. Who would deem, that scent 
Of water and an apple could have proved 

Powerful to generate such pining want, 


Not knowing how it wrought? 


While now I stood, 


Wondering what thus could waste them (for the cause 
Of their gaunt hollowness and scaly rind 

Appear’d not), lo! a spirit turn’d his eyes 

In their deep-sunken cells, and fasten’d them 

On me, then cried with vehemence aloud: 


“ What grace is this vouchsafed me? ”’ 


By his looks 


I ne’er had recognized him: but the voice 

Brought to my knowledge what his cheer conceal’d. 
Remembrance of his altered lineaments 

Was kindled from that spark; and I agnized 


The visage of Forese.® 


“Ah! respect 


This wan and leprous-wither’d skin,” thus he 
Suppliant implored, “ this macerated flesh. 


Speak to me truly of thyself. 


And who 


Are those twain spirits, that escort thee there? 
Be it not said thou scorn’st to talk with me.” 
“ That face of thine,” I answer’d him, “ which dead 
I once bewail’d, disposes me not less 
For weeping, when I see it thus transform’d. 


Say then, by Heaven, what blasts ye thus? 


2“ Who reads the name.” ‘“‘ He who 
pretends to distinguish the letters which 
form OMO in the features of the hu- 
man face, might easily have traced out 
the M on their emaciated counte- 
nances.”’ The temples, nose, and fore- 
head are supposed to represent this 
letter; and the eyes the two O’s placed 
~ithin each side of it- 


The whilst 


8 ** Forese.”? One of the brothers of 
Piccarda; he who is again spoken of 
in the next Canto, and introduced in 
the ‘‘ Paradise,”’ Canto iii; Cionacci, in 
his “‘ Storia della Beata Umiliana,” Parte 
iv. cap. i., is referred to by Lombardi, 
in order to show that Forese was also 
the brother of Corso Donati, our au- 
thor’s political enemy. 


238 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


I wonder, ask not speech from me: unapt 
Is he to speak, whom other will employs.” 

He thus: “ The water and the plant, we pass’d, 
With power are gifted, by the eternal will 
Infused; the which so pines me. Every spirit, 
Whose song bewails his gluttony indulged 
Too grossly, here in hunger and in thirst 
Is purified. The odor, which the fruit 
And spray that showers upon the verdure, breathe, 
Inflames us with desire to feed and drink. 

Nor once alone, encompassing our route, 

We come to add fresh fuel to the pain: 

Pain, said I? solace rather: for that will, 

To the tree, leads us, by which Christ was led 

To call on Eli, joyful, when he paid 

Our ransom from his vein.” I answering thus: 
“Forese! from that day, in which the world 

For better life thou changedst, not five years 
Have circled. If the power of sinning more 

Were first concluded in thee, ere thou knew’st 
That kindly grief which re-espouses us 

To God, how hither art thou come so soon? 

I thought to find thee lower,* there, where time 

Is recompense for time.” He straight replied: 
“To drink up the sweet wormwood of affliction 

I have been brought thus early, by the tears 
Stream’d down my Nella’s® cheeks. Her prayers devout, 
Fler sighs have drawn me from the coast, where oft 
Expectance lingers ; and have set me free 

From the other circles. In the sight of God 

So much the dearer is my widow prized. 

She whom I loved so fondly, as she ranks 

More singly eminent for virtuous deeds. 

The tract, most barbarous of Sardinia’s isle,® 
Hath dames more chaste, and modester by far, 
Than that wherein I left her. O sweet brother! 
What wouldst thou have me say? <A time to come 
Stands full within my view, to which this hour 


#* Lower.” In the Ante-Purgatory. Sardinia, to which that name was given, 

See Canto ii. \ on account of the uncivilized state of 
5“* My Nella.” The wife of Forese. its inhabitants, who are said to have . 
$** The tract, most barbarous of Sar- gone nearly naked. 


dinia’s isle.’”’ The Barbagia is a part of 


PURGATORY 239 


Shall not be counted of an ancient date, 

When from the pulpit shall be loudly warn’d 

The unblushing dames of Florence, lest they bare 
Unkerchief’d bosoms to the common gaze. 

What savage women hath the world e’er seen, 
What Saracens,’ for whom there needed scourge 
Of spiritual or other discipline, 

To force them walk with covering on their limbs? 
But did they see, the shameless ones, what Heaven 
Wafts on swift wing toward them while I speak, 
Their mouths were oped for howling: they shall taste 
Of sorrow (unless foresight cheat me here) 

Or e’er cheek of him be clothed with down, 

Who is now rock’d with lullaby asleep. 

Ah! now, my brother, hide thyself no more; 

Thou seest how not I alone, but all, 

Gaze, where thou veil’st the intercepted sun.” 

Whence I replied: “If thou recall to mind 

What we were once together, even yet 
Remembrance of those days may grieve thee sore. 
That I forsook that life, was due to him 

Who there precedes me, some few evenings past. 
When she was round, who shines with sister lamp 
To his great glisters yonder,’ and I show’d 

The sun. “’Tis he, who through profoundest night 
Of the true dead has brought me, with this flesh 
As true, that follows. From that gloom the aid 
Of his sure comfort drew me on to climb, 

And, climbing, wind along this mountain-steep, 
Which rectifies in you whate’er the world 

Made crooked and depraved. I have his word, 
That he will bear me company as far 

As till I come where Beatrice dwells: 

But there must leave me. Virgil is that spirit, 
Who thus hath promised,” and I pointed to him: 

“ The other is that shade, for whom so late 

Your realm, as he arose, exulting, shook 

Through every pendent cliff and rocky bound.” 
7“ Saracens.”? This word, during the short, to all nations (except the Jews) 


Middle Ages, was indiscriminately ap- who did not profess Christianity. 
plied to Pagans and Mohammedans; in . 


240 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXIV 


ARGUMENT.—Forese points out several others by name who are here, 
like himself, purifying themselves from the vice of gluttony; and 
among the rest, Buonaggiunta of Lucca, with whom our Poet con- 
verses. Forese then predicts the violent end of Dante’s political 
enemy, Corso Donati; and, when he has quitted them, the Poet, in 
company with Statius and Virgil, arrives at another tree, from 
whence issue voices that record ancient examples of gluttony; and 
proceeding forward, they are directed by an angel which way to 
ascend to the next cornice of the mountain. 


UR journey was not slacken’d by our talk, 
Nor yet our talk by journeying. Still we spake, 
And urged our travel stoutly, like a ship 
When the wind sits astern. The shadowy forms, 
That seem’d things dead and dead again, drew in 
At their deep-delved orbs rare wonder of me, 
Perceiving I had life; and I my words 
Continued, and thus spake: “ He journeys up 
Perhaps more tardily than else he would, 
For others’ sake. But tell me, if thou know’st, 
Where is Piccarda? Tell me, if I see 
Any of mark, among this multitude 
Who eye me thus.” “ My sister (she for whom, 
*Twixt beautiful and good, I cannot say 
Which name was fitter) wears e’en now her crown, 
And triumphs in Olympus.” Saying this, 
He added: “ Since spare diet hath so worn 
Our semblance out, ’tis lawful here to name 
Each one. This,” and his finger then he raised, 
“Ts Buonaggiunta ‘—Buonaggiunta, he 
Of Lucca: and that face beyond him, pierced 
Unto a leaner fineness than the rest, 
Had keeping of the church; he was of Tours,? 
And purges by wan abstinence away 
Bolsena’s eels and cups of muscadel.”’ 
He show’d me many others, one by one: 

And all, as they were named, seem’d well content ; 


/ 
1“ Buonaggiunta.” Buonaggiunta Ur- Tours became Pope with the title of 


biciani, of Tacce ; Martin IV in 1281, and died in 128s. 
2“ He was of Tours.” Simon of 


rr pep ee 


PURGATORY 243 


For no dark gesture I discern’d in any. 
I saw, through hunger, Ubaldino,’ grind 
Fis teeth on emptiness; and Boniface,* 
That waved the crozier o’er a numerous flock: 
I saw the Marquis, who had time erewhile 
To swill at Forli with less drought; yet so, 
Was one ne’er sated. I howe’er, like him 
That, gazing midst a crowd, singles out one, 
So singled him of Lucca; for methought 
Was none among them took such note of me. 
Somewhat I heard him whisper of Gentucca: 
The sound was indistinct, and murmur’d there, 
Where justice, that so strips them, fix’d her sting. 
“ Spirit!” said I, “it seems as thou wouldst fain 
Speak with me. Let me hear thee. Mutual wish 
To converse prompts, which let us both indulge.” 
He, answering, straight began: ‘“ Woman is born, 
Whose brow no wimple shades yet, that shall make 
My city please thee, blame it as they may. 
Go then with this forewarning. If aught false 
My whisper too implied, the event shall tell. 
But say, if of a truth I see the man 
Of that new lay the inventor, which begins 
With ‘ Ladies, ye that con the lore of love.’ ”’ 
To whom I thus: “ Count of me but as one, 
Who am the scribe of love; that, when he breathes, 
Take up my pen, and, as he dictates, write.” 
“ Brother!” said he, “ the hind’rance, which once held 
The notary, with Guittone and myself, 
Short of that new and sweeter style I hear, 
Is now disclosed: I see how ye your plumes 
Stretch, as the inditer guides them; which, no question, 
Ours did not. He that seeks a grace beyond, 
Sees not the distance parts one style from other.” 
And, as contented, here he held his peace. 
Like as the birds, that winter near the Nile, 
In squared regiment direct their course, 
$* Ubaldino.” Ubaldino degli Ubal- de’ Fieschi, a Genoese; by Vellutello, 
dini, of Pila, in the Florentine terri- the son of the above-mentioned Ubal- 
dini; and by Landino, Francioso, a 


tory. 
«** Boniface.” Archbishop of Raven- Frenchman. 
ma. By Venturi he is called Bonifazio 


242 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Then stretch themselves in file for speedier flight ; 
Thus all the tribe of spirits, as they turn’d 
Their visage, faster fled, nimble alike 


Through leanness and desire. 


And as a man, 


Tired with the motion of a trotting steed, 
Slacks pace, and stays behind his company, 

Till his o’erbreathed lungs keep temperate time; 
E’en so Forese let that holy crew 

Proceed, behind them lingering at my side, 


And saying: 


“ When shall I again behold thee? ” 


“ How long my life may last,” said I, “I know not. 
This know, how soon soever I return, 
My wishes will before me have arrived: 
Sithence the place,® where I am set to live, 
Is, day by day, more scoop’d of all its good; 
And dismal ruin seems to threaten it.” 

“Go now,” he cried: ‘lo! he,* whose guilt is most 
Passes before my vision, dragg’d at heels 


Of an infuriate beast. 


Toward the vale, 


Where guilt hath no redemption, on it speeds, 

Each step increasing swiftness on the last; 

Until a blow it strikes, that leaveth him 

A corse most vilely shatter’d. No long space 

Those wheels have yet to roll” (therewith his eyes 

Look’d up to heaven), “ere thou shalt plainly see 

That which my words may not more plainly tell. 

I quit thee: time is precious here: I lose 

Too much, thus measuring my pace with thine.” 
As from a troop of well-rank’d chivalry, 

One knight, more enterprising than the rest, 

Pricks forth at gallop, eager to display 

His prowess in the first encounter proved; 

So parted he from us, with lengthen’d strides; 

And left me on the way with those twain spirits, 

Who were such mighty marshals of the world. 


&** The place.” Florence. 

6 ** He.”? Corso Donati was suspected 
of aiming at the sovereignty of Flor- 
ence. To escape the fury of his fellow- 
citizens, he fled away on horseback, but 
falling, was overtaken and slain, a.p. 
1308. The contemporary annalist, after 
relating at length the circumstances of 
his fate, adds, “‘ that he was one of the 
wisest and most valorous knights, the 


best speaker, the most expert states- 
man, the most renowned and enterpris- 
ing man of his age in Italy, a comely 
Knight and of graceful carriage, but 
very worldly, and in tis time had 
formed many conspiracies in Florence, 
and entered into many scandalous prac- 
tices for the sake of attaining state and 
lordship.” 


PURGATORY 243 


When he beyond us had so fled, mine eyes 
No nearer reach’d him, than my thought his words; 
The branches of another fruit, thick hung, 
And blooming fresh, appear’d. E’en as our steps 
Turn’d thither; not far off, it rose to view. 
Beneath it were a multitude, that raised 
Their hands, and shouted forth I know not what 
Unto the boughs; like greedy and fond brats, 
That beg, and answer none obtain from him, 
Of whom they beg; but more to draw them on, 
He, at arm’s length, the object of their wish 
Above them holds aloft, and hides it not. 
At length, as undeceived, they went their way: 
And we approach the tree, whom vows and tears 
Sue to in vain; the mighty tree. “ Pass on, 
And come not near. Stands higher up the wood, 
Whereof Eve tasted: and from it was ta’en 
This plant.” Such sounds from midst the thickets came 
Whence I, with either bard, close to the side 
That rose, pass’d forth beyond. ‘“ Remember,” next 
We heard, “ those unblest creatures of the clouds,’ 
How they their twifold bosoms, overgorged, 
Opposed in fight to Theseus: call to mind 
The Hebrews,® how, effeminate, they stoop’d 
To ease their thirst; whence Gideon’s ranks were thinn’d, 
As he to Madian ® march’d adown the hills.” 
Thus near one border coasting, still we heard 
The sins of gluttony, with woe erewhile 
Reguerdon’d. Then along the lonely path, 
Once more at large, full thousand paces on - 
We travel’d, each contemplative and mute. 
“Why pensive journey so ye three alone?” 
Thus suddenly a voice exclaim’d: whereat 
I shook, as doth a scared and paltry beast ; 
Then raised my head, to look from whence it came. 
Was ne’er, in furnace, glass, or metal, seen 
So bright and glowing red, as was the shape 
6m oo isectnoen: Keke “The wierebicee Gideon in pursuit 


8“ The Hebrews.” Judges, vii. of Madian and her vanquisht kings.” 
—Milton, ‘‘ Samson Agonistes.” 


ae THE DIVINE COMEDY 


I now beheld. “If ye desire to mount,” 
He cried; “here must ye turn. This way he goes, 
Who goes in quest of peace.” His countenance 
Had dazzled me; and to my guides I faced 
Backward, like one who walks as sound directs. 

As when, to harbinger the dawn, springs up 
On freshen’d wing the air of May, and breathes 
Of fragrance, all impregn’d with herb and ete 
E’en such a wind I felt upon my front 
Blow gently, and the moving of a wing 
Perceived, that, moving, shed ambrosial smell ; 
And then a voice: “ Blessed are they, whom grace 
Doth so illume, that appetite in them 
Exhaleth no inordinate desire, 
Still hungering as the rule of temperance wills.” 


CANTO XXV. 


ARGUMENT.—Virgil and Statius resolve some doubts that have arisen 
in the mind of Dante from*what he had just seen. They all arrive 
on the seventh and last cornice, where the sin of incontinence is 
purged in fire; and the spirits of those suffering therein are heard 
to record illustrious instances of chastity. 


T was an hour, when he who climbs, had need 
To walk uncrippled; for the sun! had now 
To Taurus the meridian circle left, 
And to the Scorpion left the night. As one, 
That makes no pause, but presses on his road, 
Whate’er betide him, if some urgent need 
Impel; so enter’d we upon our way, 
One before other; for, but singly, none 
That steep and narrow scale admits to climb. 
F’en as the young stork lifteth up his wing 
Through wish to fly, yet ventures not to quit 
The nest, and drops it; so in me desire . 
Of Nay my guide arose, and fell, 


1 The sun.” The sun had passed pion is opposite, the latter constellation 
the meridian two hours, and that merid- was consequently at the meridian o 
ian was now occupied by the constel- night. 
lation of Taurus, to which as the Scor- 


PURGATORY 


245 


Arriving even to the act that marks 

A man prepared for speech. Him all our haste 
Restrain’d not; but thus spake the sire beloved: 
“Fear not to speed the shaft, that on thy lip 


Stands trembling for its flight.” 


I straight began: 


Encouraged thus, 


““ How there can leanness come, 


Where is no want of nourishment to feed? ” 
“ Tf thou,” he answer’d, “ hadst remember’d thee, 
How Meleager ? with the wasting brand 
Wasted alike, by equal fires consumed; 
This would not trouble thee: and hadst thou thought, 
How in the mirror ® your reflected form 
With mimic motion vibrates; what now seems 
Hard, and appear’d no harder than the pulp 


Of summer-fruit mature. 


But that thy will 


In certainty may find its full repose, 

Lo Statius here! on him I call, and pray 

That he would now be healer of thy wound.” 
“Tf, in thy presence, I unfold to him | 

The secrets of heaven’s vengeance, let me plead 

Thine own injunction to exculpate me.” 

So Statius answer’d, and forthwith began: 

“* Attend my words, O son, and in thy mind 

Receive them; so shall they be light to clear 


The doubt thou offer’st. 


Blood, concocted well, 


Which by the thirsty veins is ne’er imbibed, 
And rests as food superfluous, to be ta’en 

From the replenish’d table, in the heart 

Derives effectual virtue, that informs 

The several human limbs, as being that 

Which passes through the veins itself to make them. 
Yet more concocted it descends, where shame 
-Forbids to mention: and from thence distils 

In natural vessels on another’s blood. 

There each unite together; one disposed 

To endure, to act the other, through that power 


3“ Meleager.” Virgil reminds Dante 
that, as Meleager was wasted away b 
the decree of the fates, and not throug 
want of blood; so by the divine ap- 
pointment, there may be leanness where 
Bie no need of nourishment. 


‘In the mirror.”’ As the reflection 


of a form in a mirror is modified in 
agreement with the modification of the 
form itself; so the soul, separated from 
the earthly body, impresses the image 
or ghost of that body with its own 
affections. 


246 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Derived from whence it came; and being met, 
It ’gins to work, coagulating first ; 

Then vivifies what its own substance made 
Consist. With animation now endued, 

The active virtue (differing from a plant 

No further, than that this is on the way, 

And at its limit that) continues yet 

To operate, that now it moves, and feels, 

As sea-sponge clinging to the rock: and ther® 
Assumes the organic powers its seed convey’d. 
This is the moment, son! at which the virtue, 
That from the generating heart proceeds, 

Is pliant and expansive; for each limb 

Is in the heart by forgeful nature plann’d. 

How babe of animal becomes, remains 

For thy considering. At this point, more wise, 
Than thou, has err’d, making the soul disjoin’d 
From passive intellect, because he saw 

No organ for the latter’s use assign’d. 

“Open thy bosom to the truth that comes. 
Know, soon as in the embryo, to the brain 
Articulation is complete, then turns 
The primal Mover with a smile of joy 
On such great work of nature; and imbreathes 
New spirit replete with virtue, that what here 
Active it finds, to its own substance draws; 
And forms an individual soul, that lives, 

And feels, and bends reflective on itself. 

And that thou less may’st marvel at the word, 

Mark the sun’s heat; how that to wine doth change, 
Mix’d with the moisture filter’d through the vine. 

“When Lachesis hath spun the thread,* the soul 
Takes with her both the human and divine, 
Memory, intelligence, and will, in act 
Far keener than before; the other powers 
Inactive all and mute. No pause allow’d, 

In wondrous sort self-moving, to one strand 
Of those, where the departed roam, she falls: 


“When Lachesis hath spun the thread.”” When a man’s life on earth is 


at an end. 


PURGATORY 249 


Here learns her destined path. Soon as the place 
Receives her, round the plastic virtue beams, 
Distinct as in the living limbs before: - 
And as the air, when saturate with showers, , 
The casual beam refracting, decks itself 
With many a hue; so here the ambient air 
Weareth that form, which influence of the soul 
Imprints on it: and like the flame, that where 
The fire moves, thither follows; so, henceforth, 
The new form on the spirit follows still: 
Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow call’d, 
With each sense, even to the sight, endued: 
Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears and sighs, 
Which thou mayst oft have witness’d on the mount. 
The obedient shadow fails not to present 
Whatever varying passion moves within us. 
And this the cause of what thou marvel’st at.” 
Now the last flexure of our way we reach’d; 
And to the right hand turning other care 
Awaits us. Here the rocky precipice 
Hurls forth redundant flames; and from the rim 
A blast up-blown, with forcible rebuff 
Driveth them back, sequester’d from its bound. 
Behoved us, one by one, along the side, 
That border’d on the void, to pass; and I 
Fear’d on one hand the fire, on the other fear’d 
Headlong to fall: when thus the instructor warn’d; 
“ Strict rein must in this place direct the eyes. 
A little swerving and the way is lost.” 
Then from the bosom of the burning mass, 
“O God of mercy!” 5 heard I sung, and felt 
No less desire to turn. And when I saw 
Spirits along the flame proceeding, I 
Between their footsteps and mine own was fain 
To share by turns my view. At the hymn’s close 
They shouted loud, “I do not know a man;” ° 
Then in low voice again took up the strain ; 
6“ Q God of merey,? (“Summe ries; for in the modern it is “ summz 
Deus clementiz ”’). The beginning of — parens clementiz.” 


the hymn sung on the Sabbath at ma- @“T do not know a man.”—Luke, i, 
tins, as it stands in the ancient brevia- 34. 


248 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Which once more ended, “ To the wood,” they cried, 
“ Ran Dian, and drave forth Callisto stung 

With Cytherea’s poison ”: then return’d 

Unto their song; then many a pair extoll’d, 

Who lived in virtue chastely and the bands 

Of wedded love. Nor from that task, I ween, 
Surcease they; whilesoe’er the scorching fire 
Enclasps them. Of such skill appliance needs, 

To medicine the wound that healeth last. 


CANTO XXVI 


ARGUMENT.—The spirits wonder at seeing the shadow cast by the body 


of Dante on the flame as he passes it. This moves one of them to 
address him. It proves to be Guido Guinicelli, the Italian poet, who 
points out to him the spirit of Arnault Daniel, the Provencal, with 
whom he also speaks. 


HILE singly thus along the rim we walk’d, 
Oft the good master warn’d me, “ Look thou well. 
Avail it that I caution thee.” The sun 


Now all the western clime irradiate changed 
From azure tinct to white; and, as I pass’d, 
My passing shadow made the umber’d flame 
Burn ruddier. At so strange a sight I mark’d 
That many a spirit marvel’d on his way. 


66 


This bred occasion first to speak of me. 
He seems,” said they, ‘‘ no insubstantial frame; ” 


Then, to obtain what certainty they might, 
Stretch’d toward me, careful not to overpass 
The burning pale. “O thou! who followest 
The others, haply not more slow than they, 

But moved by reverence; answer me, who burn 
In thirst and fire: nor I alone, but these 

All for thine answer do more thirst, than doth 
Indian or A‘thiop for the cooling stream. 

Tell us, how is it that thou makest thyself 

A wall against the sun, as thou not yet. 

Into the inextricable toils of death 

Hadst enter’d?” Thus spake one: and I had straight 


PURGATORY 


Declared me, if attention had not turn’d 

To new appearance. Meeting these, there came, 

Midway the burning path, a crowd, on whom 

Earnestly gazing, from each part I view 

The shadows all press forward, severally. 

Each snatch a hasty kiss, and then away. 

E’en so the emmets, ’mid their dusky troops, 

Peer closely one at other, to spy out 

Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive. 
That friendly greeting parted, ere despatch 

Of the first onward step, from either tribe 

Loud clamor rises: those, who newly come, 

Shout “ Sodom and Gomorrah!” these, “ The cow 

Pasiphaé enter’d, that the beast she woo’d 

Might rush unto her luxury.” Then as cranes, 

That part toward the Riphzen mountains fly, 

Part toward the Lybic sands, these to avoid 

The ice, and those the sun; so hasteth off 

_ One crowd, advances the other; and resume 

_ Their first song, weeping, and their several shout. 
Again drew near my side the very same, 

Who had erewhile besought me; and their looks 

Mark’d eagerness to listen. I, who twice 

Their will had noted, spake: ‘“O spirits! secure, 

Whene’er the time may be, of peaceful end; 
My limbs, nor crude, nor in mature old age, 

- Have I left yonder: here they bear me, fed 

With blood, and sinew-strung. That I no more 

May live in blindness, hence I tend aloft. 

There is a dame on high, who wins for us 


This grace, by which my mortal through your realm 


Ibear. But may your utmost wish soon meet 
Such full fruition, that the orb of heaven, 
Fullest of love, and of most ample space, 
Receive you; as ye tell (upon my page 
Henceforth to stand recorded) who ye are; 
And what this multitude, that at your backs 


Have pass’d behind us.” As one, mountain-bred, | 


Rugged and clownish, if some city’s walls 
He chance to enter, round him stares agape, 


249 


250 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Confounded and struck dumb; e’en such appear’d 


Each spirit. 


But when rid of that amaze 


(Not long the inmate of a noble heart), 

He, who before had question’d, thus resumed: 
“O blessed! who, for death preparing takest 
Experience of our limits, in thy bark; 

Their crime, who not with us proceed, was that 
For which, as he did triumph, Cesar heard 


The shout of ‘Queen!’ to taunt him. 


Hence their cry 


Of ‘Sodom!’ as they parted ; to rebuke 
Themselves, and aid the burning by their shame. 
Our sinning was Hermaphrodite: but we, 
Because the law of human kind we broke, 
Following like beasts our vile concupiscence, 
Hence parting from them, to our own disgrace 
Record the name of her, by whom the beast 

In bestial tire was acted. Now our deeds 


Thou know’st, and how we sinn’d. 


If thou by name 


Wouldst haply know us, time permits not now 


To tell so much, nor can I. 
Learn what thou wishest. 


Of myself 
Guinicelli I; 


Who having truly sorrow’d ere my last, 


Already cleanse me.” 


With such pious joy, 


As the two sons upon their mother gazed 

From sad Lycurgus* rescued; such my joy 
(Save that I more repress’d it) when IJ heard 
From his own lips the name of him pronounced, 
Who was a father to me, and to those 

My betters, who have ever used the sweet 


And pleasant rhymes of love. 


So naught I heard, 


Nor spake; but long time thoughtfully I went 
Gazing on him; and, only for the fire, 


Approach’d not nearer. 


When my eyes were fed 


By looking on him; with such solemn pledge, 
As forces credence, I devoted me 


Unto his service wholly. 
He thus bespake me: 


1“ Lycurgus.”’ Hypsipile had left her 
infant charge, the son of Lycurgus, on 
a bank, where it was destroyed by a 
serpent, when she went to show the 
Argive army the river of Langia: and, 


In reply 
“What from thee I hear 


on her escaping the effects of “ycur. 
gus’s resentment, the joy her own chil- 
dren felt at the sight of her was such as 
our Poet felt on beholding his prede- 
cessor Guinicelli. 


PURGATORY 


Is graved so deeply on my mind, the waves 
Of Lethe shall not wash it off, nor make 
A whit less lively. But as now thy oath 
Has seal’d the truth, declare what cause impels 
That love, which both thy looks and speech bewray.” 
“ Those dulcet lays,’ I answer’d; “ which, as long 
As of our tongue the beauty does not fade, 
Shall make us love the very ink that traced them.” 
“Brother!” he cried, and pointed at the shade 
Before him, “ there is one, whose mother speech 
Doth owe to him a fairer ornament. 
He? in love ditties, and the tales of prose, 
Without a rival stands; and let the fools 
Talk on, who think the songster of Limoges ® 
O’ertops him. Rumor and the popular voice 
They look to, more than truth; and so confirm 
Opinion, ere by art or reason taught. 
Thus many of the elder time cried up 
Guittone, giving him the prize, till truth 
By strength of numbers vanquish’d. If thouown 
So ample privilege, as to have gain’d 
Free entrance to the cloister, whereof Christ 
Is Abbot of the college; ‘say to him 
One paternoster for me, far as needs 
For dwellers in this world, where power to sin 
No longer tempts us.” Haply to make way 
For one that follow’d next, when that was said, 
He vanish’d through the fire, as through the wave 
A fish, that glances diving to the deep. 
I, to the spirit he had shown me, drew 
A little onward, and besought his name, 
For which my heart, I said, kept gracious room. 
He frankly thus began: “ Thy courtesy * 
So wins on me, I have nor power nor will 
To hide me. Iam Arnault; and with songs, 


2“He.” The united testimony of de Borneil, of Sideuil, a castle in Limo- 
Dante, and of Feteatehs places Arnault ges. He was a Troubadour, much ad- 


Daniel at the head o 


the Provencal mired and caressed in his day, and ap- 


poets. That he was born of poor but pears to have been in favor with the 
noble parents, at the castle of Ribeyrac Monarchs of Castile, Leon, Navarre, 


in Périgord, and that he was at the Eng- and Arragon. 


lish court, is the amount of informa- “Thy courtesy.” Arnault is here 


tion we have concerning him. 
8“ The songster of Limoges.” Giraud Provengal. 


made to speak in his own tongue, the 


252 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Sorely lamenting for my folly past, 

Through this ford of fire I wade, and see 

The day, I hope for, smiling in my view. 

I pray ye by the worth that guides ye up 

Unto the summit of the scale, in time 
Remember ye my sufferings.” With such words 
He disappear’d in the refining flame. 


CANTO XXVII 


ARGUMENT.—An angel sends them forward through the fire to the last 
ascent, which leads to the terrestrial Paradise, situated on the sum- 
mit of the mountain. They have not proceeded many steps on their 
way upward, when the fall of night hinders them from going ~ 
further; and our Poet, who has lain down with Virgil and Statius 
to rest, beholds in a dream two females, figuring the active and con- 
templative life. With the return of morning, they reach the height; 
and here Virgil gives Dante full liberty to use his own pleasure and 


judgment in the choice of his way, till he shall meet with Beatrice. 
4 . 


OW was the sun? so station’d, as when first 
His early radiance quivers on the heights, 
Where stream’d his Maker’s blood ; while Libra hangs 

Above Hesperian Ebro; and new fires, 

Meridian, flash on Ganges’ yellow tide. 

So day was sinking, when the angel of God 

Appear’d before us. Joy was in his mien. 

Forth of the flame he stood upon the brink; 

And with a voice, whose lively clearness far 

Surpass’d our human, “ Blessed ? are the pure 

In heart,” he sang: then near him as we came, 

“Go ye not further, holy spirits!” he cried, 

“Ere the fire pierce you: enter in; and list 

Attentive to the song ye hear from thence.” 

I, when I heard his saying, was as one 

Laid in the grave. My hands together clasp’d, 

And upward stretching, on the fire I look’d; 

And busy fancy conjured up the forms 

Erewhile beheld alive consumed in flames. 
1“ The sun.” At Jerusalem it was noonday, while it was sunset in Purgae 


dawn, in Spain midnight, and in India tory. 
2** Blessed.””—Matt. v. 8. 


PURGATORY 


The escorting spirits turn’d with gentle looks 
Toward me; and the Mantuan spake: ‘“ My son, 
Here torment thou mayst feel, but canst not death. 
Remember thee, remember thee, if I 
Safe e’en on Geryon brought thee; now I come 
More near to God, wilt thou not trust me now? 
Of this be sure; though in its womb that flame 
A thousand years contain’d thee, from thy head 
No hair should perish. If thou doubt my truth, 
Approach ; and with thy hands thy vesture’s hem 
Stretch forth, and for thyself confirm belief. 
Lay now all fear, oh! lay all fear aside. 
Turn hither, and come onward undismay’d.” 
I still, though conscience urged, no step advanced: 
When still he saw me fix’d and obstinate, 
Somewhat disturb’d he cried: ‘“ Mark now, my son, 
From Beatrice thou art by this wall 
Divided.” As at Thisbe’s name the eye 
Of Pyramus was open’d (when life ebb’d 
Fast from his veins), and took one parting glance, 
While vermeil dyed the mulberry; thus I turn’d 
To my sage guide, relenting, when I heard 
The name that springs for ever in my breast. 
He shook his forehead ; and, “ How long,’ he said, 
“ Linger we now?” then smiled, as one would smile 
Upon a child that eyes the fruit and yields. 
Into the fire before me then he walk’d; 
And Statius, who erewhile no little space 
Had parted us, he pray’d to come behind. 
I would have cast me into molten glass 
To cool me, when [ enter’d; so intense 
Raged the conflagrant mass. The sire beloved, 
To comfort me, as he proceeded, still 
Of Beatrice talk’d. “ Her eyes,” saith he, 
“ F’en now I seem to view.” From the other side 
A voice, that sang, did guide us; and the voice 
Following, with heedful ear, we issued forth, 
There where the path led upward. ‘ Come,” ? we heard 
“Come, blessed of my Father.” Such the sounds, 


Classics. Vol. 34—], °) Come’ Matt. xxv. 34 


253 


> 


254 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That hail’d us from within a light, which shone 
So radiant, I could not endure the view. 
“ The sun,” it added, “ hastes: and evening comes. 
Delay not: ere the western sky is hung 
With blackness, strive ye for the pass.” Our way; 
Upright within the rock arose, and faced 
Such part of heaven, that from before my steps 
The beams were shrouded of the sinking sun. 
Nor many stairs were overpast, when now 
By fading of the shadow we perceived 
The sun behind us couch’d; and ere one face 
Of darkness o’er its measureless expanse 
Involved the horizon, and the night her lot 
Held individual, each of us had made 
A stair his pallet; not that will, but power, 
Had fail’d us, by the nature of that mount 
Forbidden further travel. As the goats, 
That late have skipt and wanton’d rapidly 
Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta’en 
Their suf der on the herb, now silent lie 
And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown, 
While noon-day rages; and the goatherd leans 
Upon his staff, and leaning watches them: 
And as the swain, that lodges out all night 
In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey 
Disperse them: even so all three abode, 
I as a goat, and as the shepherds they, 
Close pent on either side by shelving rock. 
A little glimpse of sky was seen above; 
Yet by that little I] beheld the stars, 
In magnitude and lustre shining forth 
With more than wonted glory. As I lay, 
Gazing on them, and in that fit of musing 
Sleep overcame me, sleep, that bringeth oft 
Tidings of future hap. About the hour, 
As I believe, when Venus from the east 
First lighten’d on the mountain, she whose orb 
Seems always glowing with the fire of love, 
A lady young and beautiful, I dream’d, 
Was passing o’er a lea; and, as she came, 


PURGATORY 355 


Methought I saw her ever and anon 

Bending to cull the flowers; and thus she sang: 

“ Know ye, whoever of my name would ask, 

That I am Leah :* for my brow to weave 

A garland, these fair hands unwearied ply. 

To please me at the crystal mirror, here 

I deck me. But my sister Rachel, she 

Before her glass abides the livelong day, 

Her radiant eyes beholding, charm’d no less, 

Than I with this delightful task. Her joy 

In contemplation, as in labor mine.” 

And now as glimmering dawn appear’d, that breaks 

More welcome to the pilgrim still, as he 

Sojourns less distant on his homeward way, 

Darkness from all sides fled, and with it fled 

My slumber; whence I rose, and saw my guide 
Already risen. “ That delicious fruit, 

Which through so many a branch the zealous care 

Of mortals roams in quest of, shall this day 

Appease thy hunger.” Such the words I heard 

From Virgil’s lip; and never greeting heard, 

So pleasant as the sounds. Within me straight 

Desire so grew upon desire to mount, 

Thenceforward at each step I felt the wings 
Increasing for my flight. When we had run 

O’er all the ladder to its topmost round, 

As there we stood, on me the Mantuan fix’d 

His eyes, and thus he spake: “ Both fires my son, 

The temporal and eternal, thou hast seen ; 

And art arrived, where of itself my ken 

Yo further reaches. I, with skill and art, 

Thus far have drawn thee. Now thy pleasure take 
For guide. Thou hast o’ercome the steeper way, 
‘O’ercome the straiter. Lo! the sun, that darts 

His beam upon my forehead: lo! the herb, 

The arborets and flowers, which of itself 

This land pours forth profuse. Till those bright eyes ® 

Pe lie ac tech a Wun, Se 
the contemplative. Michel Angelo has 5 Those bright eyes.” The eyes of 


made these allegorical personages the _ Beatrice. 
subject of two statues on the monument 


256 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


With gladness come, which, weeping, made me haste 
To succor thee, thou mayst or seat thee down, 
Or wander where thou wilt. Expect no more 
Sanction of warning voice or sign from me, 
Free of thy own arbitrament to choose, 
Discreet, judicious. To distrust thy sense 
Were henceforth error. I invest thee then 
With crown and mitre, sovereign o’er thyself.” 


CANTO XXVIII 


ARGUMENT.—Dante wanders through the forest of the terrestrial Para- 
dise, till he is stopped by a stream, on the other side of which he 
beholds a fair lady, culling flowers. He speaks to her; ani she, in 
reply, explains to him certain things touching the nature of that 
place, and tells that the water, which flows between them, is here 
called Lethe, and in another place has the name of Eunoé. 


HROUGH that celestial forest, whose thick shade 
With lively greenness the new-springing day 
Attemper’d, eager now to roam, and search 
Its limits round, forthwith I left the bank; 
Along the champain leisurely my way 
Pursuing, o’er the ground, that on all sides 
Delicious odor breathed. A pleasant air, 
That intermitted never, never veer’d, 
Smote on my temples, gently, as a wind 
Of softest influence: at which the sprays, 
Obedient all, lean’d trembling to that part? 
Where first the holy mountain casts his shade; 
Yet were not so disorder’d, but that still 
Upon their top the feather’d choristers 
Applied their wonted art, and with full joy 
Welcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrill 
Amid the leaves, that to their jocund lays 
Kept tenor; even as from branch to branch, 
Along the piny forests on the shore 
Of Chiassi, rolls the gathering melody, 
When Eolus hath from his cavern loosed 


1“ To that part.” The west. 


PURGATORY 257 


The dripping south. Already had my steps, 

Though slow, so far into that ancient wood 

Transported me, I could not ken the place 

Where I had enter’d; when, behold! my path 

Was bounded by a rill, which, to the left, 

With little rippling waters bent the grass 

That issued from its brink. On earth no wave, 

How clean soe’er, that would not seem to have 

Some mixture in itself, compared with this, 

Transpicuous clear; yet darkly on it roll’d, 

Darkly beneath perpetual gloom, which ne’er 

Admits or sun or moonlight there to shine. 

My feet advanced not; but my wondering eyes 

Pass’d onward, o’er the streamlet, to survey 

The tender may-bloom, flush’d through many a hue, 

In prodigal variety: and there, 

As object, rising suddenly to view, 

That from our bosom every thought beside 

With the rare marvel chases, I beheld 

A lady ? all alone, who, singing, went, 

And culling flower from flower, wherewith her way 

Was all o’er painted. “ Lady beautiful! 

Thou, who (if looks, that use to speak the heart, 

Are worthy of our trust,) with love’s own beam ~ 

Dost warm thee,” thus to her my speech I framed; 

“Ah! please thee hither toward the streamlet bend 

Thy steps so near, that I may list thy song. 

Beholding thee and this fair place, methinks, 

I call to mind where wander’d and how look’d 

Proserpine, in that season, when her child 

The mother lost, and she the bloomy spring.” 

As when a lady, turning in the dance, 

Doth foot it featly, and advances scarce 

One step before the other to the ground; 

Over the yellow and vermilion flowers, 

Thus turn’d she at my suit, most maiden-like 

Vailing her sober eyes; and came so near, 
2“ A lady.’’ Most of the commenta- tates called the Patrimony of St. Peter 
tors suppose that by this lady, who in and died in 1115. But it seems more 
the last Canto is called Matilda, is to probable that she should be intended 


be understood the Countess Matilda, who for some contemporary of Dante, as was 
endowed the Holy See with the es- Beatrice. 


258 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That I distinctly caught the dulcet sound. 
Arriving where the limpid waters now 
Laved the greensward, her eyes she deign’d to raise, 
That shot such splendor on me, as I ween 
Ne’er glanced from Cytherea’s, when her son 
Had sped his keenest weapon to her heart. 
Upon the opposite bank she stood and smiled; 
As through her graceful fingers shifted still 
The intermingling dyes, which without seed 
That lofty land unbosoms. By the stream 
Three paces only were we sunder’d: yet, 
The Hellespont, where Xerxes pass’d it o’er 
(A curb forever to the pride of man *), 
Was by Leander not more hateful held 
For floating, with inhospitable wave, 
*Twixt Sestus and Abydos, than by me 
That flood, because it gave no passage thence. 

“ Strangers ye come; and haply in this place, 
That cradled human nature in her birth, 
Wondering, ye not without suspicion view 
My smiles: but that sweet strain of psalmody, 
“Thou, Lord! hast made me glad,’ * will give ye light, 
Which may uncloud your minds. And thou, who stand’st 
The foremost, and didst make thy suit to me, 
Say if aught else thou wish to hear: for I 
Came prompt to answer every doubt of thine.” 

She spake; and I replied: “I know not how 
To reconcile this wave, and rustling sound 
Of forest leaves, with what I late have heard 
Of opposite report.” She answering thus: 
“T will unfold the cause, whence that proceeds, 
Which makes thee wonder; and so purge the cloud 
That hath enwrapt thee. The First Good, whose joy 
Is only in himself, created man, 
For happiness; and gave this goodly place, 
His pledge and earnest of eternal peace. 
Favor’d thus highly, through his own defect 


8“ A curb forever to the pride of a prodigious army, in the hopes of sub- 


man.” Because Xerxes had been so  duing Greece. 
humbled, when he was compelled to re- 4“ Thou, Lord! hast made me glad.” 
pass the Hellespont in one small bark, —Psalm xcii. 4. 


after having a little before crossed with 


PURGATORY 


259 


He fell; and here made short sojourn; he fell, 
And, for the bitterness of sorrow changed 
Laughter unblamed and ever-new delight. 

That vapors none, exhaled from earth beneath, 
Or from the waters (which, wherever heat 
Attracts them, follow), might ascend thus far 

To vex man’s peaceful state, this mountain rose 
So high toward the heaven, nor fears the rage 

Of elements contending; from that part 
Exempted, where the gate his limit bars. 

Because the circumambient air, throughout, 
With its first impulse circles still, unless 

Aught interpose to check or thwart its course; 
Upon the summit, which on every side 

To visitation of the impassive air 
Is open, doth that motion strike, and makes ' 
Beneath its sway the umbrageous wood resound: 
And in the shaken plant such power resides, 
That it impregnates with its efficacy 
The voyaging breeze, upon whose subtle plume 
That, wafted, flies abroad; and the other land,® 
Receiving (as ‘tis worthy in itself, 

Or in the clime, that warms it), doth conceive; 
And from its womb produces many a tree | 


Of various virtue. 


This when thou hast heard, 


The marvel ceases, if in yonder earth 

Some plant, without apparent seed, be found 
To fix its fibrous stem. And further learn, 
That with prolific foison of all seeds 

This holy plain is fill’d, and in itself 


Bears fruit that ne’er was pluck’d on other soil. 


= 


“The water, thou behold’st, springs not from vein, ° 
Restored by vapor, that the cold converts; 
As stream that intermittently repairs 
And spends his pulse of life; but issues forth / 
From fountain, solid, undecaying, sure: 


_ 5“ The other land.’”? The continent 
inhabited by the living, and separated 
from Purgatory by the ocean, is affected 
(and that diversely, according to the 
nature of the soil, or the climate) by a 
virtue, or efficacy, conveyed to it by 


the winds from plants growing in the 
terrestrial Paradise, which is situated 
on the summit of Purgatory; and this 
is the cause why some plants are found 
on earth without any apparent seed to 
produce them. 


260 THE DIVINE COMEDY. ~ 


And, by the will omnific, full supply 

Feeds whatsoe’er on either side it pours; 

On this, devolved with power to take away 
Remembrance of offence; on that, to bring 
Remembrance back of every good deed done. 
From whence its name of Lethe on this part; 
On the other, Eunoé: both of which must first 
Be tasted, ere it work; the last exceeding 

All flavors else. Albeit thy thirst may now 

Be well contented, if I here break off, — 

No more revealing; yet a corollary 

I freely give beside: nor deem my words 

Less grateful to thee, if they somewhat pass 
The stretch of promise. They, whose verse of yore 
The golden age recorded and its bliss, 

On the Parnassian mountain, of this place 
Perhaps had dream’d. Here was man guiltless; here 
Perpetual spring, and every fruit; and this 

The far-famed nectar.” ‘Turning to the bards, 
When she had ceased, I noted in their looks 

A smile at her conclusion; then my face 

Again directed to the lovely dame. 


CANTO XXIX 


ARGUMENT.—The lady, who in a following Canto is called Matilda, | 
moves along the side of the stream in a contrary direction to the 
current, and Dante keeps equal pace with her on the opposite bank. 
A marvellous sight, preceded by music, appears in view. 


INGING, as if enamor’d, she resumed 
And closed the song, with “ Blessed they ? whose sins 
Are cover’d.” Like the wood-nymphs then, that tripp’d 
Singly across the sylvan shadows; one 
Eager to view, and one to escape the sun; 
So moved she on, against the current, up 
The verdant rivage. I, her mincing step 
Observing, with as tardy step pursued. 
Between us not an hundred paces trod, 


2“ Blessed they.”—Psalm xxxii. # * 


PURGATORY 46: 


The bank, on each side bending equally, 
Gave me to face the orient. Nor our way 
Far onward brought us, when to me at once | 
She turn’d, and cried: ‘“ My brother! look, and hearken.” 
And lo! a sudden lustre ran across 
Through the great forest on all parts, so bright, | 
I doubted whether lightning were abroad; 
But that, expiring ever in the spleen 
That doth unfold it, and this during still, 
And waxing still in splendor, made me question 
What it might be: and a sweet melody 
Ran through the luminous air. Then did I chide, 
With warrantable zeal, the hardihood 
Of our first parent; for that there, where earth 
Stood in obedience to the heavens, she only, 
Woman, the creature of an hour, endured not 
Restraint of any veil, which had she borne . 
Devoutly, joys, ineffable as these, 
Had from the first, and long time since, been mine. 
While, through that wilderness of primy sweets 
That never fade, suspense I walk’d, and yet 
Expectant of beatitude more high; 
Before us, like a blazing fire, the air 
Under the green boughs glow’d; and, for a song, 
Distinct the sound of melody was heard. 
O ye thrice holy virgins! for your sakes 
If e’er I suffer’d hunger, cold, and watching, 
Occasion calls on me to crave your bounty. 
Now through my breast let Helicon his. stream 
Pour copious, and Urania? with her choir 
Arise to aid me; while the verse unfolds | 
Things, that do almost mock the grasp of thought. 
Onward a space, what seem’d seven trees of gold 
The intervening distance to mine eye 
Falsely presented; but, when I was come 
So near them, that no lineament was lost 
Of those, with which a doubtful object, seen 


2“ Urania.” Landino observes, that ** Descend Sots fica vens Urania, by 
intending to sing of heavenly things, he that na ae: 
rightly invokes Urania. Thus Milton: li rightly , thou art call’d. 


Paradise Lost,” b. vii. 1. 


262 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Remotely, plays on the misdeeming sense; La 
Then did the faculty, that ministers a 
Discourse to reason, these for tapers of gold? 
Distinguish; and i’ the singing trace the sound 
“ Hosanna!” Above, their beauteous garniture 
Flamed with more ample lustre, than the moon 7 
Through cloudless sky at midnight, in her noon. “f . 
I turn’d me, full of wonder, to my guide; 
And he did answer with a countenance 
Charged with no less amazement: whence my view 
Reverted to those lofty things, which came 
So slowly moving toward us, that the bride Fd 
Would have outstript them on her bridal day. 
The lady call’d aloud: “ Why thus yet burns 
Affection in thee for these living lights, 
And dost not look on that which follows them?” 
I straightway mark’d a tribe behind them walk, 
As if attendant on their leaders, clothed 
With raiment of such whiteness, as on earth 
Was never. On my left, the watery gleam 
Borrow’d, and gave me back, when there I look’d, 
As in a mirror, my left side portray’d. 
When I had chosen on the river’s edge 
Such station, that the distance of the stream 
Alone did separate me; there I stay’d 
My steps for clearer prospect, and beheld 
The flames go onward, leaving, as they went, 
The air behind them painted as with trail 
Of liveliest pencils; so distinct were mark’d 
All those seven listed colors, whence the sun 
Maketh his bow, and Cynthia her zone. 
These streaming gonfalons did flow beyond 
My vision ; and ten paces, as I guess, 
Parted the outermost. Beneath a sky 
So beautiful, came four and twenty elders,‘ 
By two and two, with flower-de-luces crown’d. 
All sang one song: “ Blessed be thou® among 
ti Bevers of gold” See Rev, iu 8" Bleed be thou", “Blessed art 


the seats I saw four and twenty elders fruit of thy womb.”—Luke, 1. 42, 
sitting.’’—Rev. iv 4. 


ra 


| PURGATORY | 263 
The daughters of Adam! and thy loveliness 
Blessed forever!” After that the flowers, 
And the fresh herblets, on the opposite brink, 
Were free from that elected race; as light 
In heaven doth second light, came after them 
Four ® animals, each crown’d with verdurous leaf. 
With six wings each was plumed; the plumage full 
Of eyes; and the eyes of Argus would be such, 
Were they endued with life. Reader! more rhymes 
I will not waste in shadowing forth their form: 
For other need so straitens, that in this 
I may not give my bounty room. But read 
Ezekiel ;7 for he paints them, from the north 
How he beheld them come by Chebar’s flood, 
In whirlwind, cloud, and fire; and even such 
As thou shalt find them character’d by him, 
Here were they; save as to the pennons: there, 
From him departing, John* accords with me. 
The space, surrounded by the four, enclosed 
A car triumphal :° on two wheels it came, 
Drawn at a Gryphon’s® neck; and he above 
Stretch’d either wing uplifted, *tween the midst 
And the three listed hues, on each side, three; 
So that the wings did cleave or injure none; 
And out of sight they rose: The members, far 
As he was bird, were golden; white the rest, 
With vermeil intervein’d. So beautiful 
A car, in Rome, ne’er graced Augustus’ pomp, 
Or Africanus’: e’en the sun’s itself 
Were poor to this; that chariot of the sun, 
Erroneous, which in blazing ruin fell 
At Tellus’ prayer devout, by the just doom 


6“ Four.” The four evangelists. 8“ John.” ‘ And the four beasts had 
7 “ Ezekiel.’”’ ‘‘ And I looked, and be- each of them six wings about him.’”— 

hold, a whirlwind came out of the Rev. iv. 8 
9“ A car triumphal.” Either the 


north, a great cloud, and a fire it athcat a 
itself, gd a brightness was about it, an 

out of the midst thereof as the color of 
amber, out of the midst of fire. Also 
out of the midst thereof came the like- 


Christian Church or perhaps the papal 


chair. 
_ “Gryphon.” Under the griffin, an 
imaginary creature, the fore-part of 


ness of four living creatures. And this 
was their appearance; they had the like- 
-ness of a man. ‘And every one had four 
faces, and every one had four wings.”— 
Ezekiel, i. 4, 5, 6. 


which is an eagle, and the hinder a lion, 
is shadowed forth the union of the di- 
vine and the human nature. in Jesus 
Christ. 


264 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Mysterious of all-seeing Jove. Three nymphs,' 
At the right wheel, came circling in smooth dance: 


The one so ruddy, that her form had scarce 

Been known within a furnace of clear flame; 
The next did look, as if the flesh and bones 

Were emerald; snow new-fallen seem’d the third, 
Now seem’d the white to lead, the ruddy now; 
And from her song who led, the others took 


Their measure, swift or slow. 


At the other wheel, 


A band quaternion,’? each in purple clad, 
Advanced with festal step, as, of them, one 
The rest conducted ;** one, upon whose front 


Three eyes were seen. 


In rear of all this group, 


Two old men?‘ I beheld, dissimilar 

In raiment, but in port and gesture like, 

Solid and mainly grave; of whom, the one 

Did show himself some favor’d counsellor 

Of the great Coan,’ him, whom nature made 

To serve the costliest creature of her tribe: 

His fellow mark’d an opposite intent; 

Bearing a sword, whose glitterance and keen edge, 
E’en as I viewed it with the flood between, 


Appall’d me. 


Next, four others?* I beheld 


Of humble seeming; and, behind them all, 
One single old man,’ sleeping as he came, 


With a shrewd visage. 


And these seven, each 


Like the first troop were habited; but wore 
No braid of lilies on their temples wreathed. 
Rather, with roses and each vermeil flower, 
A sight, but little distant, might have sworn, 


11 Three nymphs.” The three evan- 
gelical virtues: the first Charity, the 
next Hope, and the third Faith. Faith 
may be produced by charity, or charity 
by faith, but the inducements to hope 
must arise either from one or other of 
these. 

12** A band quaternion.” The four 
moral or cardinal virtues, of whom 
Prudence directs the others, 

18 ‘ _——- one 

The rest conducted.” 
Prudence, described with three eyes, 
because she regards the past, the pres- 
ent, and the future. 

144°°Two old men.” St. Luke, the 
physician, characterized as the writer of 
the Acts of the Apostles, and St. Paul, 


represented with a sword, on account, 
as it should seem, of the power of his 


yle. 

15 “* Of the great Coan.”” Hippocrates 
“whom nature made for the benefit of 
her favorite creature, man.” 

16 “* Four others.” ‘“* The commenta- 
tors,” says Venturi, ‘“‘ suppose these 
four to be the four evangelists; but I 
should rather take them to be four prin- 
cipal doctors of the Church.” Yet both 
Landino and Vellutello expressly call 
them the authors of the epistles, James, 
Peter, John, and Jude. 

17** One single old man.” As some 
say, St. John, under the character of 
the author of the Apocalypse. 


PURGATORY 


265 


That they were all on fire above their brow. 

When as the car was o’er against me, straight 
Was heard a thundering, at whose voice it seem’d 
The chosen multitude were stay’d; for there, 

With the first ensigns, made they solemn halt. 


CANTO XXX 


ARGUMENT.—Beatrice descends from Heave r : 


OON as that polar light,? fair ornament 
Of the first heaven, which hath never known 
Setting nor rising, nor the shadowy veil 
Of other cloud than sin, to duty there 
Each one convoying, as that lower doth 
_The steersman to his port, stood firmly fix’d; 
Forthwith the saintly tribe, who in the van 
Between the Gryphon and its radiance came, 
Did turn them to the car, as to their rest: 
And one, as if commission’d from above, 
In holy chant thrice shouted forth aloud; 


“ Come,” spouse! from Libanus ” 


: and all the rest 


Took up the song.—At the last audit, so 

The blest shall rise, from forth his cavern each 
Uplifting lightly his new-vested flesh; 

As, on the sacred litter, at the voice 
Authoritative of that elder, sprang 

A hundred ministers and messengers 


Of life eternal. 


“ Blessed® thou, who comest! ” 


And, “Oh!” they cried, “ from full hands scatter ye 


Unwithering lilies 


”: and, so saying, cast 


Flowers over head and round them on all sides, 
I have beheld, ere now, at break of day, 

The eastern clime all roseate; and the sky 

Opposed, one deep and beautiful serene; 

And the sun’s face so shaded, and with mists 


1“ That polar light.” The seven can- 
dlesticks o pela, which he calls the po- 
lar light of Heaven itself, because they 
perform the same office "for Christians 
that the polar star does for mariners, in 
guiding them to their port. 


3“ Come.” “Come with me from 
Tyson my spouse, with me, from 
Lebanon.”—Song of Solomon, ie 8. 


8“ Blessed. 4 © Blessed is that 
cometh in the name of the Pad 
Matt. xxi. 9. 


266 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Attemper’d, at his rising, that the eye 

Long while endured the sight: thus, in a cloud 

Of flowers, that from those hands angelic rose, 

And down within and outside of the_car 

Fell showering, in white veil with olive wreathed, 

A virgin in my view appéar’d, beneath 

Green mantle, robed in hue of living flame: 

And o’er my spirit, that so long a time 

Had from her presence felt no shuddering dread, 

Albeit mine eyes discern’d her not, there moved 

A hidden virtue from her, at whose touch 

The power of ancient love was strong within me. 
No sooner on my vision streaming, smote 

The heavenly influence, which, years past, and e’en 

In childhood, thrill’d me, than toward Virgil I 

Turn’d me to leftward; panting, like a babe, 

"harneestor reluse to his mother’s breast, 

If aught have terrified or work’d him woe: 

And would have cried, “ There is no dram of blood, 

hat doth nor amet sane. The old flame 

Throws out clear tokens of reviving fire.” 

But-Viegil_had bereaved us of himself; 

Virgil, my best-beloved father; Virgil, he 

To whom I gave me up for safety: nor 

All, our prime mother lost, avail’d to save 


undeux. eeks from blur of soil S. 
“Dante! wee irgil leaves thee; nay, 


eep thou not yet: behoves thee feel the edge 
Of other sword; and thou shalt weep for that.” 
As to the prow or stern, some admiral 
Paces the deck, inspiriting his crew, 
When ’mid the sail-yards all hands ply aloof; 
Thus, on the left side of the car, I saw 


urning me at the sound of mine own name, 
Whic ompe oO register 


The virgin station’d, who before appear’d 
Veil’d in that festive shower angelical. 
Toward me, across the stream, she bent her eyes? 


_ Though from her brow the veil descending, bound ~ 


With foliage of Minerva, suffer’d not 


PURGATORY 267 


That I beheld her clearly: then with act 

Full royal, still insulting o’er her thrall, 

Added, as one who, speaking, keepeth back 

The bitterest saying, to conclude the speech: 
“Observe me well. I am, in sooth, I am 

Beatrice. , What! and hast thou deign’d at last 
‘Approach the mountain? Knewest not, O man! 
Thy happiness is here?’’ Down fell mine eyes 
On the clear fount; but there, myself espying, 
Recoil’d, and sought the greensward; such a weight 
Of shame was on my forehead. With a mien 

Of that stern majesty, which doth surround 

A mother’s presence to her awe-struck child, 

She look’d; a flavor of such bitterness 

Was mingled in her pity. There her words 

Brake off; and suddenly the angels sang, 

“Tn thee, O gracious Lord! my hope hath been”: 
But* went no further than, “ Thou, Lord! hast set 
My feet in ample room.” As snow, that lies, 
Amidst the living rafters on the back 
_Of Italy, congeal’d, when drifted high 

And closely piled by rough Sclavonian blasts; 
Breathe but the land whereon no shadow falls, 
And straightway melting it distils away, 

Like a fire-wasted taper: thus was I, 

Without a sigh or tear, or ever these 

Did sing, that, with the chiming of heaven’s sphere, 
Still in their warbling chime: but when the strain 
Of dulcet symphony express’d for me 

Their soft compassion, more than could the words, 
“Virgin! why so consumest him?” then, the ice 
Congeal’d about my bosom, turn’d itself 

To spirit and water; and with anguish forth 
Gush’d, through the lips and eyelids, from the heart. 

Upon the chariot’s same edge still she stood, 

Immovable; and thus address’d her words 

To those bright semblances with pity touch’d: 
“Ye in the eternal day your vigils keep; 


4“ But.” They sang the thirty-first What follows in that Psalm would not 
Psalm, to the end of the eighth verse. have suited the place or the occasion. 


268 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


So that nor night nor slumber, with close stealth, 
Conveys from you a single step, in all 

The goings on of time: thence, with more heed 
I shape mine answer, for his ear intended, 

Who there stands weeping; that the sorrow now 
May equal the transgression. Not alone 
Through operation of the mighty orbs, 

That mark each seed to some predestined aim, 
As with aspect or fortunate or ill 

The constellations meet; but through benign 
Largess of heavenly graces, which rain down 
From such a height as mocks our vision, this man 
Was, in the freshness of his being, such, 

So gifted virtually, that in him 

All better habits wonderously had thrived. 

The -more of kindly strength is in the soil, 

So much doth evil seed and lack of culture 

Mar it the more, and make it run to wildness. 
These looks sometime upheld him; for I show’d 
My youthful eyes, and led him by their light 

In upright walking. Soon as I had reach’d 
The threshold of my second age, and changed 
My mortal for immortal; then he left me, 

And gave himself to others. When from flesh 
To spirit I had risen, and increase 

Of beauty and of virtue circled me, 

I was less dear to him, and valued less. 

His steps were turn’d into deceitful ways, 
Following false images of good, that make 

No promise perfect. Nor avail’d me aught 
To sue for inspirations, with the which, 

I, both in dreams of night, and otherwise, 

Did call him back; of them, so little reck’d him. 
Such depth he fell, that all device was short 
Of his preserving, save that he should view 
The children of perdition. To this end 

I visited the purlieus of the dead: 

And one, who hath conducted him thus high, 
Received my supplications urged with weeping. 
It were a breaking of God’s high decree, 


PURGATORY | 269. 


If Lethe should be pass’d, and such food © tasted, 
Without the cost of some repentant tear.” 


CANTO XXXI 


ARGUMENT.—Beatrice continues her reprehension of Dante, who con- 
fesses his error, and falls to the ground; coming to himself again, 
he is by Matilda,drawn through the waters of Lethe, and presented 
“first to the four virgins who figure the cardinal virtues; these in 
their turn lead him to the Gryphon, a symbol of our Saviour; and 


the three virgins, representing the evangelical virtues, intercede for 
him with Beatrice, that she would display to him her second beauty. 


a6 THOU!” her words she thus without delay 
Resuming, turn’d their point on me, to whom 
They, with but lateral edge,’ seem’d harsh before: 
*“‘ Say thou, who stand’st beyond the holy stream, 
If this be true. A charge, so grievous, needs 
Thine own avowal.” On my faculty 
Such strange amazement hung, the voice expired 
Imperfect, ere its organs gave it birth. 
A little space refraining, then she spake: 
“What dost thou muse on? Answer me. The wave 
On thy remembrances of evil yet 
Hath done no injury.” A mingled sense 
Of fear and of confusion, from my lips 
Did such a “ Yea” produce, as needed help 
Of vision to interpret. As when breaks, 
In act to be discharged, a cross-bow bent 
Beyond its pitch, both nerve and bow o’erstretch’d ; 
The flagging weapon feebly hits the mark: 
Thus, tears and sighs forth gushing, did I burst, 
Beneath the heavy load: and thus my voice 
Was slacken’d on its way. She straight began: 
“When my desire invited thee to love 
The good, which sets a bound to our aspirings ; 
What bar of thwarting foss or linked chain 
Did meet thee, that thou so shouldst quit the hope - 


5 “* Such food.’”? The oblivion of sins. directly to himself, but spoken of him 
1“ With but JIateral edge.’? The to the angel. Dante had thought suffi- 
words of Beatrice, when not addressed ciently harsh. 


270 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Of further progress? or what a bait of ease, 

Or promise of allurement, led thee on 

Elsewhere, that thou elsewhere shouldst rather wait?” 
A bitter sigh I drew, then scarce found voice 

To answer; hardly to these sounds my lips 

Gave utterance, wailing: “Thy fair looks withdrawn, 

Things present, with deceitful pleasures, turn’d 

My steps aside.” She answering spake: “ Hadst thou 

Been silent, or denied what thou avow’st, 

Thou hadst not hid thy sin the more; such eye 

Observes it. But whene’er the sinner’s cheek 

Breaks forth into the precious-streaming tears 

Of self-accusing, in our court the wheel 

Of justice doth run counter to the edge.? 

Howe’er, that thou mayst profit by thy shame 

For errors past, and that henceforth more strength 

May arm thee, when thou hear’st the Siren-voice ; 

Lay thou aside the motive to this grief, 

And lend attentive ear, while I unfold 

How opposite a way my buried flesh 

Should have impell’d thee. Never didst thou spy, 

In art or nature, aught so passing sweet, 

As were the limbs that in their beauteous frame 

Enclosed me, and are scatter’d now in dust. 

If sweetest thing thus fail’d thee with my death, 

What, afterward, of mortal, should thy wish 

Have tempted? When thou first hadst felt the dart 

Of perishable things, in my departing 

For better realms, thy wing thou shouldst have pruned 

To follow me; and never stoop’d again, 

To ’bide a second blow, for a slight girl,® 

Or other gaud as transient and as vain. 

The new and inexperienced bird* awaits, 

Twice it may be, or thrice, the fowler’s aim; 

But in the sight of one whose plumes are full, 

In vain the net is spread, the arrow wing’d.” 


2“ Counter to the edge.” “The  tucca of Lucca, mentioned in the 
weapons of divine justice are blunted twenty-fourth Canto. | ; 
by the confession and sorrow of the | 4“ Bird.” “ ue in vain the net 
offender.” is spread in the sight of any bird.”— 


3“ For a nae girl.” “Daniello and Prov. i. 17. 
Venturi say that this alludes to Gen- | 


PURGATORY amr 


I stood, as children silent and ashamed 
Stand, listening, with their eyes upon the earth, 
Acknowledging their fault, and self-condemn’d. 
And she resumed: “If, but to hear, thus pains thee; 
Raise thou thy beard. and lo! what sight shall do.” 
With less reluctance yields a sturdy holm, 
Rent from its fibres by a blast, that blows 
From off the pole, or from Iarbas’ land,® 
Than I at her behest my visage raised: 
And thus the face denoting by the beard, 
I mark’d the secret sting her words convey’d. 
No sooner lifted I mine aspect up, 
Than I perceived those primal creatures cease 
Their flowery sprinkling; and mine eyes beheld 
(Yet unassured and wavering in their view) 
Beatrice; she, who toward the mystic shape, 
That joins two natures in one form, had turn’d: 
And, even under shadow of her veil, 
And parted by the verdant rill that flow’d 
Between, in loveliness she seem’d as much 
Her former self surpassing, as on earth 
All others she surpass’d. Remorseful goads 
Shot sudden through me. Each thing else, the more 
Its love had late beguiled me, now the more 
Was loathsome. On my heart so keenly smote 
_ The bitter consciousness, that on the ground 
O’erpower’d I fell: and what my state was then, 
She knows, who was the cause. When now my strength 
Flow’d back, returning outward from the heart, 
The lady,® whom alone I first had seen, 
I found above me. “ Loose me not,” she cried: 
“ Loose not thy hold”: and lo! had dragg’d me high 
As to my neck into the stream; while she, 
Still as she drew me after, swept along, 
Swift as a shuttle, bounding o’er the wave. 
The blessed shore approaching, then was heard 
So sweetly, “ Tu asperges me,” that I 
May not remember, much less tell the sound. 
The beauteous dame, her arms expanding, clasp’d 


6 From Iarbas’ land.” The south. 6 “ The lady.” Matilda, 


272 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


My temples, and immerged me where ’twas fit 
The wave should drench me: and, thence raising up, 
Within the fourfold dance of lovely nymphs 
Presented me so laved; and with their arm 
They each did cover me. “ Here are we nymphs, 
And in the heaven are stars. Or ever earth 
Was visited of Beatrice, we, 
Appointed for her handmaids, tended on her. 
We to her eyes will lead thee: but the light 
Of gladness, that is in them, well to scan, 
Those yonder three, of deeper ken than ours, 
Thy sight shall quicken.” Thus began their song: 
And then they led me to the Gryphon’s breast, 
Where, turn’d toward us, Beatrice stood. 
“ Spare not thy vision. We have station’d thee 
Before the emeralds, whence love, erewhile, 
Hath drawn his weapons on thee.” As they spake, 
A thousand fervent wishes riveted 
Mine eyes upon her beaming eyes, that stood, 
Still fix’d toward the Gryphon, motionless. 
As the sun strikes a mirror, even thus 
Within those orbs the twifold being shone; 
Forever varying, in one figure now 
Reflected, now in other. Reader! muse 
How wondrous in my sight it seem’d, to mark 
A thing, albeit steadfast in itself, 
Yet in its imaged semblance mutable. 

Full of amaze, and joyous, while my soul 
Fed on the viand, whereof still desire 
Grows with satiety; the other three, 
With gesture that declared a loftier line, 
Advanced: to their own carol, on they came 
Dancing, in festive ring angelical. 

“Turn, Beatrice!” was their song: “Oh! turn 
Thy saintly sight on this thy faithful one, 
Who, to behold thee, many a wearisome pace 
Hath measured. Gracious at our prayer, vouchsafe 
Unveiled to him thy cheeks; that he may mark 
Thy second beauty, now conceal’d.” O splendor! 
O sacred light eternal! who is he, 


PURGATORY 273 


So pale with musing in Pierian shades, 

Or with that fount so lavishly imbued, 

Whose spirit should not fail him in the essay 
To represent thee such as thou didst seem, 
When under cope of the still-chiming heaven 
‘Thou gavest to open air thy charms reveal’d? 


CANTO XXXII 


ARGUMENT.—Dante is warned not to gaze t ice. The 
procession moves on, accompanied by Matilda, Statius, and Dante, 
till they reach an exceeding lofty tree, where divers strange chances 
befall. 


INE eyes with such an eager coveting 
Were bent to rid them of their ten years’ thirst,? 
No other sense was waking: and e’en they 
Were fenced on either side from heed of aught; 
So tangled, in its custom’d toils, that smile 
Of saintly brightness drew me to itself: 
When forcibly, toward the left, my sight 
The sacred virgins turn’d; for from their lips 
I heard the warning sounds: “ Too fix’d a gaze!” 
Awhile my vision labor’d; as when late 

Upon the o’erstrained eyes the sun hath smote: 
But soon, to lesser object, as the view 
Was now recover’d (lesser in respect 
To that excess of sensible, whence late 
I had perforce been sunder’d), on their right 
I mark’d that glorious army wheel, and turn, 
Against the sun and sevenfold lights, their front. 
As when, their bucklers for protection raised, 
A well-ranged troop, with portly banners curl’d, 
Wheel circling, ere the whole can change their ground, 
E’en thus the goodly regiment of heaven, 
Proceeding, all did pass us ere the car 
Had sloped his beam. Attendant at the wheels 
The damsels turn’d; and on the Gryphon moved 


1‘ Their ten years’ thirst.” Beatrice had been dead ten years, 
rer 


274 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth, 

No feather on him trembled. The fair dame, 
Who through the wave had drawn me, companied 
By. Statius and myself, pursued the wheel, 

Whose orbit, rolling, mark’d a lesser arch. 

Through the high wood, now void (the more her blame, 
Who by the serpent was beguiled) I pass’d, 

With step in cadence to the harmony | 
Angelic. Onward had we moved, as far, 
Perchance, as arrow at three several flights 

Full wing’d had sped, when from her station down 
Descended Beatrice. With one voice 

All murmur’d “ Adam ”’; circling next a plant 
Despoil’d of flowers and leaf, on every bough. 

Its tresses, spreading more as more they rose, 
Were such, as ’midst their forest wilds, for height, 
The Indians might have gazed at. “ Blessed thou, 
Gryphon! ? whose beak hath never pluck’d that tree 
Pleasant to taste: for hence the appetite 

Was warp’d to evil.”’ Round the stately trunk 
Thus shouted forth the rest, to whom return’d 
The animal twice-gender’d: ‘“ Yea! for so 

The generation of the just are saved.” 

And turning to the chariot-pole, to foot 

He drew it of the widow’d branch, and bound 
There, left unto the stock whereon it grew. 

As when large floods of radiance from above 
Stream, with that radiance mingled, which ascends 
Next after setting of the scaly sign, 

Our plants then bourgeon, and each wears anew 
His wonted colors, ere the sun have yoked 
Beneath another star his flamy steeds; 

Thus putting forth a hue more faint than rose, 
And deeper than the violet, was renew’d 

The plant, erewhile in all its branches bare. 
Unearthly was the hymn, which then arose. 

I understood it not, nor to the end 

Endured the harmony. Had I the skill 


2‘ Gryphon.” Our Saviour’s sub- junction, to “render unto Caesar the 
mission to the Roman Empire appears _ things that are Cesar’s.” 
to be intended, and particularly his in- 


PURGATORY 276 


To pencil forth how closed the unpitying eyes 
Slumbering, when Syrinx warbled (eyes that paid 
So dearly for their watching), then, like painter, 
That with a model paints, I might design 

The manner of my falling into sleep. 

But feign who will the slumber cunningly, 

I pass it by to when I waked; and tell, 

How suddenly a flash of splendor rent 

The curtain of my sleep, and one cries out, 

“ Arise: what dost thou?” As the chosen three, 
On Tabor’s mount, admitted to behold 

The blossoming of that fair tree,? whose fruit 

Is coveted of angels, and doth make 

Perpetual feast in Heaven; to themselves 
Returning, at the word whence deeper sleeps* 
Were broken, they their tribe diminish’d saw; 
Both Moses and Elias gone, and changed 

The stole their master wore; thus to myself 
Returning, over me beheld I stand 

The piteous one,® who, cross the stream, had brought 
My steps. “And where,” all doubting, I exclaim’d, 
“Is Beatrice?” “See her,” she replied, 
“Beneath the fresh leaf, seated on its root. 
Behold the associate quire that circles her. 

The others, with a melody more sweet 

And more profound, journeying to higher realms, 
Upon the Gryphon tend.” If there her words 
Were closed, I know not; but mine eyes had now 
Ta’en view of her, by whom all other thoughts 
Were barr’d admittance. On the very ground 
Alone she sat, as she had there been left 

A guard upon the wain, which I beheld 

Bound the twiform beast. The seven nymphs 
Did make themselves a cloister round about her; 
And, in their hands, upheld those lights® secure 
From blast septentrion and the gusty south. 


8 “* The blossoming of that fair tat death, in the instance of the ruler of the 


Our Saviour’s transfiguration. ‘‘ As synagogue’s daughter and of Lazarus. 
the apple-tree among the trees of the 5“ The piteous one.” Matilda. 
wood, “4 7 my pavale among the ©“ Those lights.” The tapers of 
sons.”—Solomon’s Son 


g 11, 3- gold. 
4 ** Deeper sleeps.” "The sleep of 


¥ 


276 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“ A little while thou shalt be forester here; 
And citizen shalt be, forever with me, 
Of that true Rome,’ wherein Christ dwells a Roman. 
To profit the misguided world, keep now 
Thine eyes upon the car; and what thou seest, 
Take heed thou write, returning to that place.’’® 
Thus Beatrice: at whose feet inclined 
Devout, at her behest, my thought and eyes 
I, as she bade, directed. Never fire, 
With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud 
Leap’d downward from the welkin’s furthest bound, 
As I beheld the bird of Jove® descend 
Down through the tree; and, as he rush’d, the rind 
Disparting crush beneath him; buds much more, 
And leaflets. On the car, with all his might 
He struck; whence, staggering, like a ship it reel’d, 
At random driven, to starboard now, o’ercome, 
And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves. 
Next, springing up into the chariot’s womb, 
A fox? I saw, with hunger seeming pined 
Of all good food. But, for his ugly sins 
The saintly maid rebuking him, away 
Scampering he turn’d, fast as his hide-bound corpse 
Would bear him. Next, from whence before he came, 
I saw the eagle dart into the hull 
O’ the car, and leave it with his feathers lined :*4 
And then a voice, like that which issues forth 
From heart with sorrow rived, did issue forth 
From heaven, and, “O poor bark of mine!” it cried, 
“ How badly art thou freighted.” Then it seem’d 
That the earth open’d between either wheel; 
And I beheld a dragon’ issue thence, 
That through the chariot fix’d his forked train; 
And like a wasp, that draggeth back the sting, 
So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragg’d 
7 “ Of that true Rome.” Of Heaven. represented the treachery of the here- 
8 “To that place.”” To the earth. tics. 
°“The bird of Jove.” This, which With his feathers lined.” In 
is imitated from Ezekiel, xvii. 3, 4, is allusion to the donations made by Con- 
typical of the persecutions which the stantine to the Church. 
hurch sustained from the Roman em- 12 A dragon.”’ Probably Mohammed; 


perors. . for what Lombardi offers to the con- 
10 “* A fox.”? By the fox probably is trary is far from satisfactory. 


PURGATORY 277 


Part of the bottom forth; and went his way, 
Exulting. What remain’d, as lively turf 

With green herb, so did clothe itself with plumes,"* 
Which haply had, with purpose chaste and kind, 
Been offer’d; and therewith were clothed the wheels, 
Both one and other, and the beam, so quickly, 

A sigh were not breathed sooner. Thus transform’d, 
The holy structure, through its several parts, 

Did put forth heads ;** three on the beam, and one 
On every side: the first like oxen horn’d; 

But with a single horn upon their front, 

The four. Like monster, sight hath never seen. 
O’er it?® methought there sat, secure as rock 

On mountain’s lofty top, a shameless whore, 
Whose ken roved loosely round her. At her side, 
As ’t were that none might bear her off, I saw 

A giant stand; and ever and anon 

They mingled kisses. But, her lustful eyes 
Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion 
Scourged her from head to foot all o’er; then full 
Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloosed 

The monster, and drageg’d on,*® so far across 

The forest, that from me its shades alone 

Shielded the harlot and the new-form’d brute. 


13“ With plumes.” The increase of | cupiscence, and envy, hurtful, at least 
wealth and temporal dominion, which in their primary effects, chiefly to him 
followed the supposed gift of Constan- who is guilty of them. 

ne. ‘ 15 O’er it.” The harlot is thought 
_ 4“ Heads.” By the seven heads, it to represent the state of the Church 
is supposed with sufficient probability, under Boniface VIII, and the giant to 
are meant the seven capital sins: by the figure Philip IV of France. 
three with two horns, pride, anger, and 6“ Drageg’d on.” The removal of 
avarice, injurious both to man himself the Pope’s residence from Rome to 
and to his neighbor: by the four with Avignon is pointed at. 
one horn, gluttony, gloominess, con- 


Classics. Vol. 34—M 


278 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXXIII 


ARGUMENT.—After a hymn sung, Beatrice leaves the tree, and takes 
with her the seven virgins, Matilda, Statius, and Dante. She then 
darkly predicts to our Poets some future events. Lastly, the whole 
band arrive at the fountain, from whence the two streams, Lethe 
and Eunoé, separating, flow different ways; and Matilda, at the de- 
sire of Beatrice, causes our Poet to drink of the latter stream. 


HE heathen, Lord! are come”: responsive thus, 
The trinal now, and now the virgin band 
Quaternion, their sweet psalmody began, 

Weeping; and Beatrice listen’d, sad 
And sighing, to the song, in such a mood, 
That Mary, as she stood beside the cross, 
Was scarce more changed. But when they gave her place 
To speak, then, risen upright on her feet, 
She, with a color glowing bright as fire, 
Did answer: “ Yet a little while,® and ye 
Shall see me not; and, my beloved sisters! 
Again a little while, and ye shall see me.” 

Before her then she marshal’d all the seven; 
And, beckoning only, motion’d me, the dame, 
And that remaining sage,* to follow her. 

So on she pass’d; and had not set, I ween, 
Her tenth step to the ground, when, with mine eyes, 
Her eyes encountered; and, with visage mild, 
“So mend thy pace,” she cried, “that if my words 
Address thee, thou mayst still be aptly placed 
To hear them.” Soon as duly to her side 
I now had hasten’d: ‘“ Brother!” she began, 
“Why makest thou no attempt at questioning, 
As thus we walk together?” Like to those 
Who, speaking with too reverent an awe 
Before their betters, draw not forth the voice 
Alive unto their lips, befell me then 
That 1 in sounds imperfect thus began: 
“Lady! what I have need of, that thou know’st; 
And what will suit my need.” She answering thus: 


_1“The heathen.” ‘O God, the while, and ye shall not see me; and 
heathen are come ag thine inheri- again a a pene and ye shall see 
tance, ’—-Psalm 1Ixxix. me.’’—John, xvi. 16 


2“ Yet a little while.” ye CK little 8 That remaining sage.” Statius. 


PURGATORY ~~ 279 


“Of fearfulness and shame, I will that thou 
Henceforth do rid thee; that thou speak no more, 
As one who dreams. Thus far be taught of me: 
The vessel which thou saw’st the serpent break, 
Was, and is not:* let him, who hath the blame, 
Hope not to scare God’s vengeance with a sop.° 
Without an heir forever shall not be 

That eagle,® he, who left the chariot plumed, 
Which-monster made it first and next a prey. 
Plainly I view, and therefore speak, the stars 
F’en now approaching, whose conjunction, free 
From all impediment and bar, brings on 

A season, in the which, one sent from God 

(Five hundred, five, and ten, do mark him out), 
That foul one, and the accomplice of her guilt, © 
The giant, both, shall slay. And if perchance 
My saying, dark as Themis or as Sphinx, 

Fail to persuade thee (since like them it foils 

The intellect with blindness), yet erelong 
Events shall be the Naiads, that will solve 

This knotty riddle; and no damage light 

On flock or field. Take heed; and as these words 
By me are utter’d, teach them even so 

To those who live that life, which is a race 

To death: and when thou writest them, keep in mind 
Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant, 
That twice? hath now been spoil’d. This whoso robs, 
This whoso plucks, with blasphemy of deed 

Sins against God, who for his use alone 
Creating hallow’d it. For taste of this, 

In pain and in desire, five thousand years 

And upward, the first soul did yearn for him 
Who punish’d in himself the fatal gust. 


4“ Was, and is not.” “ The beast murdered, within the space of nine 
that was, and is not.”—Rev. xvii. 11. Bid t 

5 “* Hope not to scare God’s_ ven- 6“ That eagle.” He prognosticates 
geance with a sop.” ‘‘ Let not him that the Emperor of Germany will not 


who hath occasioned the destruction of always continue to submit to the 
the Church, that vessel which the ser- usurpations of the Pope, and _foretells 
pent brake, hope to appease the anger the coming of Henry VII, Duke of 
of the Deity by any outward acts of Luxemburg, signified by the numer- 
religious, or rather superstitious, cere- ical figures DVX; or, as Lombardi 
mony; such as was that, in our Poet’s supposes, of Can Grande della Scala, 
time, performed by a murderer at Flor- ° appointed the leader of the Ghibelline 
ence, who imagined himself secure from forces. __ ; 

vengeance, if he ate a sop of bread in 7** Twice.” First by the eagle and 
wine upon the grave of the person next by the giant. 


280 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


‘““Thy reason slumbers, if it deem this height, 

And summit thus inverted, of the plant, 

Without due cause: and were not vainer thoughts, 

As Elsa’s numbing waters,® to thy soul. 

And their fond pleasures had not dyed it dark 

As Pyramus the mulberry ; thou hadst seen, 

In such momentous circumstance alone, 

God’s equal justice morally implied 

In the forbidden tree. But since I mark thee, 

In understanding, harden’d into stone, 

And, to that hardness, spotted too and stain’d, 

So that thine eye is dazzled at my word; 

I will, that, if not written, yet at least: 

Painted thou take it in thee, for the cause, 

That one brings home his staff inwreathed with palm.” 
I thus: “As wax by seal, that changeth not 

Its impress, now is stamp’d my brain by thee. 

But wherefore soars thy wish’d-for speech so high 

Beyond my sight, that loses it the more, 

The more it strains to reach it?” “To the end 

That thou mayst know,” she answer’d straight, “the school, 

That thou hast follow’d; and how far behind, 

When following my discourse, its learning halts: 

And mayst behold your art, from the divine 

As distant, as the disagreement is 

*Twixt earth and heaven’s most high and rapturous orb.” 
“T not remember,” I replied, “that e’er 

I was estranged from thee; nor for such fault 

Doth conscience chide me.” Smiling she return’d: 

“Tf thou canst not remember, call to mind 

How lately thou hast drunk of Lethe’s wave; 

And, sure as smoke doth indicate a flame, 

In that forgetfulness itself conclude 

Blame from thy alienated will incurr’d. 

From henceforth, verily, my words shall be 

As naked, as will suit them to appear 

In thy unpractised view.” More sparkling now, 

And with retarded course, the sun possess’d 

The circle of mid-day, that varies still 
8“ Elsa’s numbing . waters.” ‘The Florence, is ‘said to possess a petrifying 


E]sa, a little stream, which flows into quality. 
the Arno about twenty miles below 


-PURGATORY 


As the aspect varies of each several clime; 
When, as one, sent in vaward of a troop 
For escort, pauses, if perchance he spy 
Vestige of somewhat strange and rare; so paused 
The sevenfold band, arriving at the verge 
Of a dun umbrage hoar, such as is seen, 
Beneath green leaves and gloomy branches, oft 
To overbrow a bleak and alpine cliff. 
And, where they stood, before them, as it seem’d, 
I, Tigris and Euphrates both, beheld 
Forth from one fountain issue; and, like friends, 
Linger at parting. “O enlightening beam! 
O glory of our kind! beseech thee say 
What water this, which, from one source derived, 
Itself removes to distance from itself? ” 
To such entreaty answer thus was made: 
*Entreat Matilda, that she teach thee this.” 
And here, as one who clears himself of blame 
Imputed, the fair dame return’d: “Of me 
He this and more hath learnt; and I am safe 
That Lethe’s water hath not hid it from him.” 
And Beatrice: ‘“ Some more pressing care, 
That oft the memory ’reaves, perchance hath made 
His mind’s eye dark. But lo, where Eunoé flows! 
Lead thither; and, as thou art wont, revive 
His fainting virtue.” As a courteous spirit, 
That proffers no excuses, but as soon 
As he hath token of another’s will, 
Makes it his own; when she had ta’en me, thus 
The lovely maiden moved her on, and call’d 
To Statius, with an air most lady-like: 
“Come thou with him.” Were further space allow’d, 
Then, Reader! might I sing, though but in part, 
That beverage, with whose sweetness I had ne’er 
Been sated. But, since all the leaves are full, 
Appointed for this second strain, mine art 
With warning bridle checks me. I return’d 
From the most holy wave, regenerate, 
E’en as new plants renew’d with foliage new, 
Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars. 


— 


28% 


5 ‘he 
seeds 


PARADISE 


aD 


CANTO I 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet ascends with Beatrice toward the first heaven; 
and is, by her, resolved of certain doubts which arise in his mind. 


IS glory, by whose might all things are moved, 
Pierces the universe, and in one part 
sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less. In Heaven, 
That largeliest of his light partakes, was I, 
Witness of things, which, to relate again, 
Surpasseth power of him who comes from thence; 
- or that, so near approaching its desire, 
- Our intellect is to such depth absorb’d, 
That memory cannot follow. Nathless all, 
That in my thoughts I of that sacred realm 
Could store, shall now be matter of my song. 
Benign Apollo! this last labor aid ; 
And make me such a vessel of thy worth, 
As thy own laurel claims, of me beloved. 
Thus far? hath one of steep Parnassus’ brows 
Sufficed me; henceforth, there is need of both 
For my remaining enterprise. Do thou? 
Enter into my bosom, and there breathe 
So, as when Marsyas by thy hand was drageg’d 
Forth from his limbs, unsheathed. O power divine! 
If thou to me of thine impart so much, 
That of that happy realm the shadow’d form 
Traced in my thoughts I may set forth to view; 
Thou shalt behold me of thy favor’d tree, 


1“Thus far.”” He appears to mean 2“Do thou.” Make me thine in- 
nothing more than that this part of his strument; and, through me, utter such 
rae will require a greater exertion of | sound as when thou didst contend with 
is powers than the former. Marsyas. 


283 


284 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves: 
For to that honor thou, and my high theme 
Will fit me. If but seldom, mighty Sire! 

To grace his triumph, gathers thence a wreath 
Cesar, or bard (more shame for human wills 
Depraved), joy to the Delphic god must spring 
From the Peneian foliage, -when one breast 

Is with such thirst inspired. From a small spark 
Great flame hath risen: after me, perchance, 
Others with better voice may pray, and gain, 
From the Cyrrhzan city, answer kind. 

Through divers passages, the world’s bright lamp 
Rises to mortals ; but through that * which joins 
Four circles with the threefold cross, in best 
Course, and in happiest constellation * set, 
He comes; and, to the worldly wax, best gives 
Its temper and impression. Morning there,® 
Here Eve was well-nigh by such passage made; 
And whiteness had o’erspread that hemisphere, 
Blackness the other part; when to the leit ® 
I saw Beatrice turn’d, and on the sun 
Gazing, as never eagle fix’d his ken. 
As from the first a second beam is wont 
To issue, and reflected upward rise, 
Even as a pilgrim bent on his return; 
So of her act, that through the eyesight pass’d 
Into my fancy, mine was form’d: and straight, 
Beyond our mortal wont, I fix’d mine eyes 
Upon the sun. Much is allow’d us there, 
That here exceeds our power; thanks to the place. 
Made for the dwelling of the human kind. 

I suffer’d it not long; and yet so long, 
That I beheld it bickering sparks around, 
As iron that comes boiling from the fire. 
And suddenly upon the day appear’d 


8“ Through that.’”’ ‘ Where the four 5“* Morning there.” It was morning 


circles, the horizon, the Zodiac, the 
Equator, and the equinoctial colure on the earth. 


where he then was, and about eventide 


join; the last three intersecting each 8“ To the left.” Being in the o 


other so as to form three crosses, as 
may be seen in the armillary s 
4**TIn happiest constellation.” Aries. herself to the left. 
Some understand the planet Venus by 

the ‘‘ migliore stella.” 


site hemisphere to ours, Beatrice, 
phere.” she may behold the rising sun, turns 


PARADISE 28s 


A day new-risen; as he, who hath the power, 
Had with another sun bedeck’d the sky. 
Her eyes fast fix’d on the eternal wheels, 
Beatrice stood unmoved; and I with ken 
Fix’d upon her, from upward gaze removed, 
At her aspect, such inwardly became 
As Glaucus, when he tasted of the herb 
That made him peer among the ocean gods: 
Words may not tell of that, trans-human change; 
And therefore let the SPR oer OE weak, 
For those whom grace hath better proof in store. 
If I were only what thou didst create, 
Then newly, Love! by whom the heaven is ruled; 
Thou know’st, who by thy light didst bear me up. 
Whenas the wheel which thou dost ever guide, 
Desired Spirit! with its harmony, 
Temper’d of thee and measured, charm’d mine ear 
Then seem’d to me so much of heaven to blaze 
With the sun’s flame, that rain or flood ne’er made 
A lake so broad. The newness of the sound, 
And that great light, inflamed me with desire, 
Keener than e’er was felt, to know their cause. 
Whence she, who saw me, clearly as myself, 
To calm my troubled mind, before I ask’d, 
Open’d her lips, and gracious thus. began: 
“With false imagination thou thyself 
Makest dull; so that thou seest not the thing, 
Which thou hadst seen, had that been shaken off. 
Thou art not on the earth as thou believest ; 
For lightning, scaped from its own proper place, 
Ne’er ran, as thou hast hither now return’d.” 
Although divested of my first-raised doubt 
By those brief words accompanied with smiles, 
Yet in new doubt was I entangled more, 
And said: “ Already satisfied, I rest 
From admiration deep; but now admire 
How I above those lighter bodies rise.” 
Whence, after utterance of a piteous sigh, 
She toward me bent her eyes, with such a look, 
As on her frenzied child a mother casts; 


286 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Then thus began: ‘“ Among themselves all things 
Have order; and. from hence the form,’ which makes 
The universe resemble God. In this 

The higher creatures see the printed steps 

Of that eternal worth, which is the end 
Whither the line is drawn.’ All natures lean, 
In this their order, diversly ; some more, 

Some less approaching to their primal source. 
Thus they to different havens are moved on 
Through the vast sea of being, and each one 
With instinct given, that bears it in its course: 
This to the lunar sphere directs the fire; 

This moves the hearts of mortal animals; 

This the brute earth together knits, and binds. 
Nor only creatures, void of intellect, 

Are aim’d at by this vow; but even those, 

That have intelligence and love, are pierced. 

That Providence, who so well orders all, 

With her own light makes ever calm the heaven,°® 
In which the substance, that hath greatest speed,?® 
Is turn’d: and thither now, as to our seat 
Predestined, we are carried by the force 

Of that strong cord, that never looses dart 

But at fair aim and glad. Yet it is true, 

That as, ofttimes, but ill accords the form 

To the design of art, through sluggishness 

Or unreplying matter; so this course 

Is sometimes quitted by the creature, who 

Hath power, directed thus, to bend elsewhere ; 

As from a cloud the fire is seen to fall, 

From its original impulse warp’d to earth, 

By vicious fondness. Thou no more admire 

Thy soaring (if I rightly deem), than lapse 

Of torrent downward from a mountain’s height. 
There would in thee for wonder be more cause, 
If, free of hindrance, thou hadst stay’d below, 


7“ From hence the form.” This order the Supreme Being, so are they referre¢ 
it is, that gives to the universe the form to Him again. 


of unity, and therefore resemblance to 9“ The heaven.’’ The empyrean, whict 
God. is always motionless. 

8“ Whither the line is drawn.” All ‘The substance, that hath greates 
things. as they have their beginning from sheat! " The primum mobtle. 


PARADISE 287 


As living fire unmoved upon the earth.” | 
So said, she turn’d toward the heaven her face. 


CANTO II 
‘ARGUMENT.—Dante and his celestial guide enter the moon. The cause 
s, which appear in that i jained_ to 


_hin- 
LL ye, who in small bark have following sail’d, 
A Eager to listen, on the adventurous track 
Of my proud keel, that singing cuts her way, 

Backward return with speed, and your own shores 
Revisit; nor put out to open sea, 

Where losing me, perchance ye may remain 
Bewilder’d in deep maze. ‘The way I pass, 

Ne’er yet was run: Minerva breathes the gale; 
Apollo guides me; and another Nine, 

To my rapt sight, the arctic beams reveal. 

Ye other few who have outstretch’d the neck 
Timely for food of angels, on which here 

They live, yet never know satiety ; 

Through the deep brine ye fearless may put out 
Your vessel; marking well the furrow broad 

Before you in the wave, that on both sides 

Equal returns. Those, glorious, who pass’d o’er 

To Colchos, wonder’d not as ye will do, 

When they saw Jason following the plough. 

The increate perpetual thirst, that draws 
Toward the realm of God’s own form, bore us 
Swift almost as the heaven ye behold. 
Beatrice upward gazed, and I on her; 

And in such space as on the notch a dart 

Is placed, then loosen’d flies, I saw myself 

Arrived, where wonderous thing engaged my sight. 
Whence she, to whom no care of mine was hid, 
Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair, 

Bespake me: “ Gratefully direct thy mind 

To God, through whom to this first star* we come.” — 


1‘ This ‘first star.’’: The moon, 


288 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Meseem’d as if a cloud had cover’d us, 
Translucent, solid, firm, and polish’d bright, 
Like adamant, which the sun’s beam had smit. 
Within itself the ever-during pearl 
Received us; as the wave a ray of light 
Receives, and rests unbroken. If I then 
Was of corporeal frame, and it transcend 
Our weaker thought, how one dimension thus 
Another could endure, which needs must be 
If body enter body; how much more 
Must the desire inflame us to behold 
That essence, which discovers by what means 
God and our nature join’d! There will be seen 
That, which we hold through faith; not shown by proof, 
But in itself intelligibly plain, 
E’en as the truth that man at first believes. 
I answer’d: “ Lady! I with thoughts devout, 
Such as I best can frame, give thanks to him, 
Who hath removed me from the mortal world. 
But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots 
Upon this body, which below on earth 
Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?” 
She somewhat smiled, then spake: “If mortals err 
In their opinion, when the key of sense 
Unlocks not, surely wonder’s weapon keen . 
Ought not to pierce thee: since thou find’st, the wings 
Of reason to pursue the senses’ flight 
Are short. But what thy own thought is, declare.” 
Then I: ‘ What various here above appears, 
Is caused, I deem, by bodies dense or rare.” 
She then resumed: “ Thou certainly wilt see 
In falsehood thy belief o’erwhelm’d, if well 
Thou listen to the arguments which I 
Shall bring to face it. The eighth sphere displays 
Numberless lights, the which, in kind and size, 
May be remark’d of different aspects: 
If rare or dense of that were cause alone, 
One single virtue then would be in all; 
Alike distributed, or more, or less. 
Different virtues needs must be the fruits 


PARADISE 289 


Of formal principles; and these, save one, 

Will by thy reasoning be destroy’d. Beside, 

If rarity were of that dusk the cause, 

Which thou inquirest, either in some part 

That planet must throughout be void, nor fed 
With its own matter; or, as bodies share 

Their fat and leanness, in like manner this 

Must in its volume change the leaves.?__ The first, 
If it were true, had through the sun’s eclipse 
Been manifested, by transparency 

Of light, as through aught rare beside effused. 
But this is not. Therefore remains to see 

The other cause: and, if the other fall, 

Erroneous so must prove what seem’d to thee. 

If not from side to side this rarity 

Pass through, there needs must be a limit, whence 
Its contrary no further lets it pass. 

And hence the beam, that from without proceeds, 
Must be pour’d back; as color comes, through glass 
Reflected, which behind it lead conceals. 

Now wilt thou say, that there of murkier hue, 
Than, in the other part, the ray is shown, 

By being thence refracted further back. 

From this perplexity will free thee soon 
Experience, if thereof thou trial make, 

The fountain whence your arts derive their streams. 
Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove 
From thee alike; and more remote the third, 
Betwixt the former pair, shall meet thine eyes: 
Then turn’d toward them, cause behind thy back 
A light to stand, that on the three shall shine, 
And thus reflected come to thee from all. 
Though that, beheld most distant, do not stretch 
A space so ample, yet in brightness thou 

Wilt own it equalling the rest. But now, 

As under snow the ground, if the warm ray 
Smites it, remains dismantled of the hue 

And cold, that cover’d it before; so thee, 


2 Change the leaves.”? Would, like leaves of parchment, be darker in some 
art than in others. 


290 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Dismantled in thy mind, I will inform 
With light so lively, that the tremulous beam 


Shall quiver where it falls. 


Within the heaven,® 


Where peace divine inhabits, circles round 
A body, in whose virtue lies the being 


Of all that it contains. 


The following heaven, 


That hath so many lights, this being divides, 
Through different essences, from it distinct, 


And yet contain’d within it. 


The other orbs 


Their separate distinctions variously 
Dispose, for their own seed and produce apt. 
Thus do these organs of the world proceed, 
As thou beholdest now, from step to step; 
Their influences from above deriving, 
And thence transmitting downward. Mark me well; 
How through this passage to the truth I ford, 
The truth thou lovest ; that thou henceforth, alone, 
Mayst know to keep the shallows, safe, untold. 
“ The virtue and motion of the sacred orbs, 
As mallet by the workman’s hand, must needs 
By blessed movers * be inspired. This heaven,® 
Made beauteous by so many luminaries, 
From the deep spirit,® that moves its circling sphere, 
Its image takes and impress as a seal: 
And as the soul, that dwells within your dust, 
Through members different, yet together form’d, 
In different powers resolves itself; e’en so 
The intellectual efficacy unfolds 
Its goodness multiplied throughout the stars; 
On its own unity revolving still. 
Different virtue’ compact different 
Makes with the precious body it enlivens, 


8“ Within the: heaven.” According 
to our Poet’s system, there are ten 
heavens. The heaven, ‘“‘ where peace 
divine inhabits,” is the empyrean; the 
body within it, that ‘‘ circles round,’’ is 
the primum mobile; “the following 
heaven,” that of the fixed stars; and 
“‘the other orbs,” the seven lower 
heavens, are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the 
Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. 
Thus Milton, “ Paradise Lost” b. iii. 


, 4 ; eat iy he i ee , 
“They pass the planets seven, and pass 
the fix’d, 


And that crystalline sphere whose 
balance weighs 
The trepidation talk’d, and that first 
moved.” 
4“ By blessed movers.”’ 
5“ This heaven.” 
stars. 
6“ The deep 
angel. . 
7 Different virtue.” ‘There is one 
glory of the sun, and another glory of 
the moon, and another glory of the 


By angels. 
The heaven of fixed 


spirit.” The moving 


other star in glory.”—1 Cor, xv. 41. 


stars; for one star differeth from ane 
1 


PARADISE 292 


With which it knits, as life in you is knit. 

From its original nature full of joy, 

The virtue mingled through the body shines, 

As joy through pupil of the living eye. 

From hence proceeds that which from light to light 
Seems different, and not from dense or rare. 

This is the formal cause, that generates, 
Proportion’d to its power, the dusk or clear.” 


CANTO III 


ARGUMENT.—In the moon Dante meets with Piccarda, the sister of 
Forese, who tells him that this planet is allotted to those, who, after 
having made profession of chastity and a religious life, had been 
compelled to violate their vows; and she then points out to him the 
spirit of the Empress Costanza. 


HAT sun,’ which erst with love my bosom warm/’d, 
Had of fair truth unveil’d the sweet aspect, 
By proof of right, and of the false reproof; 

And I, to own myself convinced and free 

Of doubt, as much as needed, raised my head 

Erect for speech. But soon a sight appear’d, 

Which, so intent to mark it, held me fix’d, 

That of confession I no longer thought. 

As through translucent_and smooth glass, or wave 

Clear and unmoved, and flowing not so deep 

As that its bed is dark, the shape returns 

So faint of our impictured lineaments, 

That, on white forehead set, a pearl as strong 

Comes to the eye; such saw I many a face, 

All stretch’d to speak; from whence I straight conceived, 
Delusion ? opposite to that, which raised, 

Between the man and fountain, amorous flame. 

Sudden, as I perceived them, deeming these 

Reflected semblances, to see of whom 
1 That sun.” Beatrice. mistook a shadow for a Haase! I, 


2“ Delusion.” ‘An error the con- a substance for a shadow 
trary to that of Narcissus; because he 


292 : THE DIVINE COMEDY 


They were, I turn’d mine eyes, and nothing saw; 

Then turn’d them back, directed on the light 

Of my sweet guide, who, smiling, shot forth beams 

From her celestial eyes. “ Wonder not thou,” 

She cried, “at this my smiling, when I see 

Thy childish judgment; since not yet on truth 

It rests the foot, but, as it still is wont, 

Makes thee fall back in unsound vacancy. 

True substances are these, which thou behold’st, 

Hither through failure of their vow exiled. 

But speak thou with them; listen, and believe, 

That the true light, which fills them with desire, 

Permits not from its beams their feet to stray.” 

Straight to the shadow, which for converse seem’d 

Most earnest, I address’d me: and began 

As one by over-eagerness perplex’d: 

“O spirit, born for joy! who in the rays 

Of life eternal, of that sweetness know’st 

The flavor, which, not tasted, passes far 

All apprehension; me it well would please, 

If thou wouldst tell me of thy name, and this 

Your station here.” Whence she with kindness prompt, 

And eyes glistering with smiles: ‘“ Our charity, 

To any wish by justice introduced, | 

Bars not the door; no more than she above, 

Who would have all her court be like herself. 

I was a virgin sister in the earth: 

And if thy mind observe me well, this form, 

With such addition graced of loveliness, 

Will not conceal me long; but thou wilt know 

Piccarda,® in the tardiest sphere thus placed, 

Here ’mid these other blessed also blest. 

Our hearts, whose high affections burn alone 

With pleasure from the Holy Spirit conceived, 

Admitted to his order, dwell in joy. 

And this condition, which appears so low, 

Is for this cause assign’d us, that our vows 

Were, in some part, neglected and made void.” 
4 Piccardal”’ The sister of Corso Petrarch has been supposed to allude 


_ Donati, and..of Forese, whom we have to this lady in his “Triumph of 
seen in the “Purgatory,” Canto xxiii. Chastity,” v. 160, &c. . 


PARADISE 293 


Whence I to her replied: “ Something divine 
Beams in your countenances wonderous fair; 
From former knowledge quite transmuting you. 
Therefore to recollect was I so slow. 

But what thou say’st hath to my memory 
Given now such aid, that to retrace your forms 
Is easier. Yet inform me, ye, who here 

Are happy; long ye for a higher place, 

More to behold, and more in love to dwell?” 

She with those other spirits gently smiled; 
Then answer’d with such gladness, that she seem’d 
With love’s first flame to glow: “ Brother! our will 
Is, in composure, settled by the power 
Of charity, who makes us will alone 
What we possess, and naught beyond desire: 

If we should wish to be exalted more, 

Then must our wishes jar with the high will 
Of him, who sets us here; which in these orbs 
Thou wilt confess not possible, if here 

To be in charity must needs befall, 

And if her nature well thou contemplate. 
Rather it is inherent in this state 

Of blessedness, to keep ourselves within 

The divine will, by which our wills with his 
Are one. So that as we, from step to step, 
Are placed throughout this kingdom, pleases all, 
Even as our King, who in us plants his will; 
And in his will is our tranquillity: 

It is the mighty ocean, whither tends 
Whatever creates and Nature makes.” 

Then saw I clearly how each spot in heaven 
Is Paradise, though with like gracious dew 
The supreme virtue shower not over all. 

But as it chances, if one sort of food 
Hath satiated, and of another still 
The appetite remains, that this is ask’d, 

And thanks for that return’d; e’en so did I, 
In word and motion, bent from her to learn 
What web it was,* through which she had not drawn 


* “What web it was.” “What vow been hindered from completing, had 
of religious life it was that she had been compelled to break.’ 


294 
The shuttle to its point. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


She thus began: 


“ Exalted worth and perfectness of life 
The Lady ° higher up inshrine in heaven, 
By whose pure laws upon your nether earth 
The robe and veil they wear; to that intent, 
That e’en till death they may keep watch, or sleep, 
With their great bridegroom, who accepts each vow, 
Which to his gracious pleasure love conforms. 
I from the world, to follow her, when young 
Escaped; and, in her vesture mantling me, 

- Made promise of the way her sect enjoins. 
Thereafter men, for ill than good more apt, 
Forth snatch’d me from the pleasant cloister’s pale. 
God knows ® how, after that, my life was framed. 
This other splendid shape, which thou behold’st 
At my right side, burning with all the light 
Of this our orb, what of myself I tell 
May to herself apply. From her, like me 
A sister, with like violence were torn 
The saintly folds, that shaded her fair brows. 
E’en when she to the world again was brought 
In spite of her own will and better wont, 
Yet not for that the bosom’s inward veil 


Did she renounce. 


This is the luminary 


Of mighty Constance,’ who from that loud blast, 

Which blew the second ® over Suabia’s realm, 

That power produced, which was the third and last.” 
She ceased from further talk, and then began 

“Ave Maria” singing; and with that song 


5 “The Lady.” St. Clare, the foun- 
dress of the order called after her. She 
was born of opulent and noble parents 
at Assisi, in 1193, and died in 1253. 

6 “God knows.” Piccarda’s brother 
Corso, inflamed with rage against his 
virgin sister, having joined with him 
Farinata, an infamous assassin, and 
twelve other abandoned -ruffians, en- 
tered the monastery by a ladder, and 
carried away his sister forcibly to his 
own house; and then tearing off her 
religious habit, compelled her to go in 
a secular garment to her nuptials. Be- 
fore the spouse of Christ came together 
with her new husband, she knelt down 
before a crucifix and recommended her 
virginity to Christ. Soon after her 
whole body was smitten with leprosy, 
so as to strike grief and horror into the 


beholders; and thus in a few days, ~ 
through the divine disposal, she passed 
with a palm of virginity to the Lord. 

7 “ Constance.”” — Daughter of Rug- 
gieri, King of Sicily, who being taken 
by force out of a monastery where she 
had professed, was married to the Em- 
peror se patel VI and by him was mother 
to Frederick II. She was fifty years old 
or more at the time, and because it was 
not credited that she could have a child 
at that age, she was delivered in a 

avilion, and it was given out that any 
ady, who pleased, was at liberty to see 
her. Many came and saw her; and the 
suspicion ceased. 

8 “The second.” Henry VI, son of 
Frederick I, was the second emperor of 
the house of Suabia; and his son Fred- 
erick II ‘‘ the third and last.’ 


PARADISE 295 


Vanish’d, as heavy substance through deep wave. 
Mine eye, that, far as it was capable, 

Pursued her, when in dimness she was lost, 

Turn’d to the mark where greater want impell’d, 

And bent on Beatrice all its gaze. 

But she, as lightning, beam’d upon my looks; 

So that the sight sustain’d it not at first. 

Whence I to question her became less prompt. 


CANTO IV 


ARGUMENT.—While they still continue in the moon, Beatrice removes 
certain doubts which Dante had conceived respecting the place as- 
signed to the blessed, and respecting the will absolute or conditional. 
He inquires whether it is possible to make satisfaction for a vow 
broken. 


ETWEEN two kinds of food, both equally 

B Remote and tempting, first a man might die 
Of hunger, ere he one could freely chuse. 

E’en so would stand a lamb between the maw 
Of two fierce wolves, in dread of both alike: 
E’en so between two deer a dog would stand. 
Wherefore, if I was silent, fault nor praise 
I to myself impute; by equal doubts 
Held in suspense; since of necessity 
It happen’d. Silent was I, yet desire 
Was painted in my looks; and thus I spake 
My wish more earnestly than language could. 

As Daniel,? when the haughty king he freed 
From ire, that spurr’d him on to deeds unjust 
And violent; so did Beatrice then. 

“ Well I discern,” she thus her words address’d, 
“ How thou art drawn by each of these desires ; ? 
So that thy anxious thought is in itself 
Bound up and stifled, nor breathes freely forth. 
Thou arguest: if the good intent remain; 


1“ Daniel.”” See Dan. ii. Beatrice the Chaldeans. This dream is referred 
did for Dante what Daniel did for Nebu- _to in “ Hell,” Canto xiv. | ; 
chadnezzar, when he freed the King 2“ By each of these desires. His 


from the uncertainty respecting his desire to have each of the doubts, which 
dream, which had enraged him against Beatrice mentions, resolved, 


296 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


What reason that another’s violence 
Should stint the measure of my fair desert? 

“ Cause too thou find’st for doubt, in that it seems, 
That spirits to the stars, as Plato? deem’d, 


Return. 


These are the questions which thy will 


Urge equally; and therefore I, the first, 

Of that * will treat which hath the more of gall.° 
Of seraphim * he who is most enskied, 

Moses and Samuel, and either John, 

Chuse which thou wilt, nor even Mary’s self, 
Have not in any other heaven their seats, 

Than have those spirits which so late thou saw’st; 
Nor more or fewer years exist; but all 

Make the first circle 7 beauteous, diversly 
Partaking of sweet life, as more or less 

Afflation of eternal bliss pervades them. 

Here were they shown thee, not that fate assigns 
This for their sphere, but for a sign to thee 

Of that celestial furthest from the height. 

Thus needs, that ye may apprehend, we speak: 
Since from things sensible alone ye learn 

That, which, digested rightly, after turns 


To intellectual. 


For no other cause 


The Scripture, condescending graciously 
To your perception, hands and feet to God 
Attributes, nor so means: and holy church 
Doth represent with human countenance, 
Gabriel, and Michel, and him who made 


Tobias whole. 


Unlike what here thou seest. 


The judgment of Timzus, who affirms 
Each soul restored to its particular star ; 
Believing it to have been taken thence, 


3“ Plato.”” Plato, Timzus, v. ix. p. 
326. ‘‘ The Creator, when he had framed 
the universe, distributed to the stars an 
equal number of souls, appointing to 
each soul its several star.’’ 

4“ Of that.” Plato’s opinion. 

5 “Which hath the more of gall.” 
Which is the more dangerous. 

¢ “ Of seraphim.” e amongst the 
seraphim who is most nearly united with 
God, Moses, Samuel, and both the 
Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist, 
dwell not in any other heaven than do 
those spirits whom thou hast just be- 


held; nor does even the blessed Virgin 
herself dwell in any other: nor is their 
existence either longer or shorter than 
that of these spirits.” She first resolves 
his doubt whether souls do not return 
to their own stars, as he had read in the 
“ Timeus ”’ of Plato. Angels, then, and 
beatified spirits, she declares, dwell all 
and eternally together, only partaking 
more or less of the divine glory, in the 
empyrean; although, in condescension 
to human Saterday they appear to 
have different spheres a lotted to them. 
7“ The first circle.” The empyrean, 


PARADISE 


297 


When nature gave it to inform her mould: 
Yet to appearance his intention is 


Not what his words declare: 


and so to shun 


Derision, haply thus he hath disguised 


His true opinion. 


If his meaning be, 


That to the influencing of these orbs revert 
The honor and the blame in human acts, 
Perchance he doth not wholly miss the truth. 
This principle, not understood aright, 
Erewhile perverted well-nigh all the world; 
So that it fell to fabled names of Jove, 


And Mercury, and Mars. 


That other doubt, 
Which moves thee, is less harmful ; 


for it brings 


No peril of removing thee from me. 
“ That, to the eye of man,® our justice seems 
Unjust, is argument for faith, and not 


For heretic declension. 


But, to the end 


This truth ®° may stand more clearly in your view, 
I will content thee even to thy wish. 

“Tf violence be, when that which suffers, naught 
Consents to that which forceth, not for this 


These spirits stood exculpate. 


For the will, 


That wills not, still survives unquench’d, and doth, 
As nature doth in fire, though violence 


Wrest it a thousand times; 


for, if it yield 


Or more or less, so far it follows force. 
And thus did these, when they had power to seek 


The hallow’d place again. 


In them, had will 


Been perfect, such as once upon the bars 
Held Laurence *° firm, or wrought in Sczvola 


To his own hand remorseless; 


to the path, 


Whence they were drawn, their steps had hasten’d back, 
’ When liberty return’d: but ih too few, 


Resolve, so steadfast, dwells. 


8 “ That, to the eye of man.” ‘* That 
the ways of divine justice are often in- 
scrutable to man, ought rather to be a 
motive to faith than an inducement to 
heresy.” Such appears to me the most 
satisfactory explanation of the passage. 

°“ This truth.” That it is no im- 

eachment of God’s justice, if merit be 
essened through compulsion of others, 
without any failure of good intention on 


And by these words, 


the part of the meritorious. After all, 
Beatrice ends by admitting that there 
was a defect in the will, which hindered 
Constance and the others from seizing 
the first opportunity, that offered itself 
if them, o returning to. the monastic 
ife. 

10“ Laurence.” Who suffered mnatyr- 
dom in the third century. 


298 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


If duly weigh’d, that argument is void, 

Which oft might have perplex’d thee still. But now 

Another question thwarts thee, which, to solve, 

Might try thy patience without better aid. 

I have, no doubt, instill’d into thy mind, 

That blessed spirit may not lie; since near 

The source of primal truth it dwells for aye: 

And thou mightst after of Piccarda learn 

That Constance held affection to the veil; 

So that she seems. to contradict me here. 

Not seldom, brother, it hath chanced for men - 

To do what they had gladly left undone; 

Yet, to shun peril, they have done amiss: 

E’en as Alcmzon, at his father’s 2 suit 

Slew his own mother ;?? so made pitiless, 

Not to lose pity. On this point bethink thee, 

That force and will are blended in such wise 

As not to make the offence excusable. 

Absolute will agrees not to the wrong; 

But inasmuch as there is fear of woe 

From non-compliance, it agrees. Of will *® 

Thus absolute, Piccarda spake, and I 

Of the other; so that both have truly said.” 

Such was the flow of that pure rill, that well’d 
From forth the fountain of all truth; and such 
The rest, that to my wandering thoughts I found. 
“O thou, of primal love the prime delight, 

Goddess!” I straight replied, “whose lively words 

Still shed new heat and vigor through my soul; 

Affection fails me to requite thy grace 

With equal sum of gratitude: be his 

To recompense, who sees and can reward thee. 

Well I discern, that by that truth ** alone 

Enlighten’d, beyond which no truth may roam, 

Our mind can satisfy her thirst to know: 

Therein she resteth, e’en as in his lair 
11‘ His father’s.”” Amphiaraus. stances; and that, which I affirm, is 
12 ** His own mother.” Eriphyle. spoken of the will conditionally and re- 
18 “ Of will.”’” What Piccarda asserts spectively: so that our apparent differ- 

of Constance, that she retained her af- ence is without any disagreem 


ent. 
fection to the monastic life, is said ab- 14“ That truth.” The light of divine 
solutely and without relation to circum- truth. 


PARADISE 299 


The wild beast, soon as she hath reach’d ‘that bound. 
And she hath power to reach it; else desire 

Were given to no end. And thence doth doubt 
Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of truth; 

And it is nature which, from height to height, 

On to the summit prompts us. This invites, 

This doth assure me, Lady! reverently 

To ask thee of another truth, that yet 

Is dark to me. I fain would know, if man 

By other works well done may so supply 

The failure of his vows, that in your scale 

They lack not weight.” I spake; and on me straight 
Beatrice look’d, with eyes that shot forth sparks 

Of love celestial, in such copious stream, 

That, virtue sinking in me overpower’d, 

I turn’d; and downward bent, confused, my sight. 


CANTO V 


ARGUMENT.—The question proposed in the last Canto is answered. 
Dante ascends with Beatrice to nN ereury which isthe 
second Heaven; and here he finds a multitude of spirits, one of 
whom offers to Eek him of anything he may desire to know from 
them. 


F beyond earthly wont, the flame of love 
Illume me, so that I o’ercome thy power 
Of vision, marvel not: but learn the cause 
In that perfection of the sight, which, soon 
As apprehending, hasteneth on to reach 
The good it apprehends. I well discern, 
How in thine intellect already shines 
The light eternal, which to view alone 
Ne’er fails to kindle love; and if aught else 
Your love seduces, ’tis but that it shows 
Some ill-mark’d vestige of that primal. beam. 
“This wouldst thou know: if failure of the vow “ii 
1“ Tf beyond earthly wont.’’ Dante end of the last Ganto# sate tells him to 


a been unable to sustain the splen- attribute her increase of Haidipecirin to 
dor of Beatrice, as we have seen at the the place in which ‘they. were. ° 


300 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


By other service may be so supplied, 
As from self-question to assure the soul.” 

Thus she her words, not heedless of my wish, 
Began; and thus, as one who breaks not off 
Discourse, continued in her saintly strain. 

“ Supreme of gifts,? which God, creating, gave 

Of his free bounty, sign most evident 

Of goodness, and in his account most prized 

Was liberty of will; the boon, wherewith 

All intellectual creatures, and them sole, 

He hath endow’d. Hence now thou mayst infer 

Of what high worth the vow, which so is framed 

That when man offers, God well-pleased accepts: 
_For in the compact between God and him, 

This treasure such as I describe it to thee, 

He makes the victim; and of his own act. 

What compensation therefore may he find? 

If that, whereof thou hast oblation made, 

By using well thou think’st to consecrate, 

Thou wouldst of theft do charitable deed. 

Thus I resolve thee of the greater point. 

“ But forasmuch as holy church, herein 
Dispensing, seems to contradict the truth 
I have discover’d to thee, yet behoves 
Thou rest a little longer at the board, 
Ere the crude aliment which thou hast ta’en, 
Digested fitly, to nutrition turn. 
Open thy mind to what I now unfold; 
And give it inward keeping. Knowledge comes 
Of learning well retain’d, unfruitful else. 

“This sacrifice, in essence, of two things ® 


2** Supreme of gifts.”” So in the ‘‘ De 
Monarchia,” lib. 1. pp. 107 and 108. “ If 
then the judgment altogether move the 
appetite, and is in no wise prevented by 
it, it is free. But if the judgment be 
moved by the appetite in any way pre- 
venting it, it cannot be free: because it 
acts not of itself, but is led captive by 
another. And hence it is that brutes 
cannot have free judgment, because 
their judgments are always prevented 
by appetite. And hence it may also ap- 
pear manifest that intellectual sub- 
stances, whose wills are immutable, and 
likewise souls separated from the body, 


and departing from it well and holily, 
lose not the liberty of choice on ac- 
count of the immutability of the will, 
but retain it most. perfectly and power- 
fully. This being discerned, it is again 
plain that this liberty, or principle of all 
our liberty, is the greatest good con- 
ferred on human nature by God; be- 
cause by this very thing we are here 
made happy, as men; by this we are 
elsewhere happy, as divine beings.” 
3“ Two things.”?” The one, the sub- 
stance of the vow, as of a single life 
for instance, or of keeping fast; the 
other, the compact, or form of it. 


PARADISE 305 


Consisteth; one is that, whereof ’tis made; 

The covenant, the other. For the last, 

It ne’er is cancel’d, if not kept: and hence 

I spake, erewhile, so strictly of its force. 

For this it was enjoin’d the Israelites,‘ 

Though leave were given them, as thou know’st, to change 

The offering, still to offer. The other part, 

The matter and the substance of the vow, 

May well be such, as that, without offence, 

It may for other substance be exchanged. 

But, at his own discretion, none may shift 

The burden on his shoulders; unreleased 

By either key,® the yellow and the white. 

Nor deem of any change, as less than vain, 

If the last bond ® be not within the new 

Included, as the quatre in the six. 

No satisfaction therefore can be paid 

For what so precious in the balance weighs, 

That all in counterpoise must kick the beam. 

Take then no vow at random: ta’en, with faith 

Preserve it; yet not bent, as Jephthah once, 

Blindly to execute a rash resolve, 

Whom better it had suited to exclaim, 

‘I have done ill,’ then to redeem his pledge 

By doing worse: or, not unlike to him 

In folly, that great leader of the Greeks ; 

Whence, on the altar, Iphigenia mourn’d 

Her virgin beauty, and hath since made mourn 

Both wise and simple, even all, who hear 

Of so fell sacrifice. Be ye more staid, 

O Christian! not, like feather, by each wind 

Removable; nor think to cleanse yourselves 

In every water. Either testament, 

The old and new, is yours: and for your guide, 

The shepherd of the church. Let this suffice 

To save you. When by evil lust enticed, 

Remember ye be men, not senseless beasts ; 

“Tt was pind fhe Israelites.”” See’ 6 “ Tf the last bond.” If the thing sub- 
ev. c. xii. and stituted be not far more precious than 


xx 
4 ore Peas key.” “ fcstary Canto that which is released. 
EOladsion, Vol. 34—N 


302 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Nor let the Jew, who dwelleth in your streets, 
Hold you in mockery. Be not, as the lamb, 
That, fickle wanton, leaves its mother’s milk, 
To dally with itself in idle play.” 

Such were the words that Beatrice spake: 
These ended, to that region, where the world 
Is liveliest, full of fond desire she turn’d. 

Though mainly prompt new question to propose, | 
Her silence and changed look did keep me dumb. 
And as the arrow, ere the cord is still, 

Leapeth unto its mark; so on we sped 

Into the second realm. There I beheld 

The dame, so joyous, enter, that the orb 

Grew brighter at her smiles; and,.if the star 

Were moved to gladness, what then was my cheer, 
Whom nature hath made apt for every change! 

As in a quiet and clear lake the fish, 

If aught approach them from without, do draw 
Toward it, deeming it their food; so drew 

Full more than thousand splendors toward us; 
And in each one was heard: “Lo! one arrived 
To multiply our loves!’ and as each came, 

The shadow, streaming forth effulgence new, 
Witness’d augmented joy. Here, Reader! think, 
If thou didst miss the sequel of my tale, 

To know the rest how sorely thou wouldst crave; 
And thou shalt see what vehement desire 
Possess’d me, soon as these had met my view, 
To know their state. “O born in happy hour! 
Thou, to whom grace vouchsafes, or e’er thy close 
Of fleshly warfare, to behold the thrones 

Of that eternal triumph; know, to us 

The light communicated, which through heaven 
Expatiates without bound. Therefore, if aught 
Thou of our beams wouldst borrow for thine aid, 
Spare not; and, of our radiance, take thy fill.” 

Thus of those piteous spirits one bespake me; 
And Beatrice next: “ Say on; and trust 
As unto gods.” “ How in the light supreme 
Thou harbor’st, and from thence the virtue bring’st, 


PARADISE 303 
That, sparkling in thine eyes, denotes thy joy, 

I mark; but, who thou art, am still to seek; 

Or wherefore, worthy spirit! for thy lot 

This sphere? assign’d, that oft from mortal ken 

Is veil’d by other’s beams.” I said; and turn’d 
Toward the lustre, that with greeting kind 

Erewhile had hail’d me. Forthwith, brighter far 
Than erst, it wax’d: and, as himself the sun 

Hides through excess of light, when his warm gaze ® 
Hath on the mantle of thick vapors prey’d; 

Within its proper ray the saintly shape 

Was, through increase of gladness, thus conceal’d; 
And, shrouded so in splendor, answer’d me, 

F’en as the tenor of my song declares. 


CANTO VI 


ARGUMENT.—The spirit, who had offered to satisfy the inquiries of 
Dante, declares himself to be the EmperorJustinian; and after 
speaking of his own actions, recounts the victories, before him, 
obtained under the Roman Eagle. He then informs our Poet that 
the soul of Romeo the pilgrim is in the same star. 


FTER that Constantine the eagle turn’d 

A Against the motions of the heaven, that roll’d 
Consenting with its course, when he of yore, 

Lavinia’s spouse, was leader of the flight; 

A hundred years twice told and more,’ his seat 

At Europe’s extreme point,’ the bird of Jove 

Held, rear the mountains, whence he issued first; 

There under shadow of his sacred plumes 

Swaying the world, till through successive hands 


™* This sphere.” The planet Mer- course, when he passed from Troy to 
cury, which being nearest to the sun, is Ita 


oftenest hidden by that luminary. 

8‘* When his warm gaze.”?” When the 
sun has dried up the vapors, that shad- 
ed his brightness. 

1**After that Constantine the eagle 
turn’d.” Constantine, in transferring 
the seat of empire from Rome to By- 
zantium, carried the eagle, the imperial 
ensign, from the west to the east. 
/Eneas, on the contrary, had, with bet- 
ter augury, moved along with the sun’s 


2°* A hundred years twice told and 
more.’”” The Emperor Constantine en- 
tered Byzantium in 324; and’ Justinian 
began his reign in 527. 

3“ At Europe’s extreme point.”? Con- 
stantine being situated at the extreme 
of Europe, and on the borders of Asia, 
near those mountains in the neighbor- 
hood of Troy, from whence the first 
founders of Rome had emigrated. 


304 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To mine he came devolved. Czsar I was; 

And am Justinian; destined by the will 

Of that prime love, whose influence I feel, 
From vain excess to clear the incumber’d laws.* 
Or e’er that work engaged me, I did hold 

In Christ one nature only ;° with such faith 
Contented. But the blessed Agapete,® 

Who was chief shepherd, he with warning voice 


To the true faith recall’d me. 


I believed 


His words: and what he taught, now plainly see, 
As thou in every contradiction seest 

The true and false opposed. Soon as my feet 
Were to the church reclaim’d, to my great task, 
By inspiration of God’s grace impell’d, 

I gave me wholly; and consign’d mine arms 
To Belisarius, with whom heaven’s right hand 
Was link’d in such conjointment, ’twas a sign 


That I should rest. 


To thy first question thus 


I shape mine answer, which were ended here, 

But that its tendency doth prompt perforce 

To some addition; that thou well mayst mark, 

What reason on each side they have to plead, 

By whom that holiest banner is withstood, 

Both who pretend its power * and who oppose.® 
“ Beginning from that hour, when Pallas died 

To give it rule, behold the valorous deeds 


Have made it worthy reverence. 


Not unknown 


To thee, how for three hundred years and more 

It dwelt in Alba, up to those fell lists 

Where, for its sake, were met the rival three; ° 

Nor aught unknown to thee, which it achieved 
Down ?° from the Sabines’ wrong to Lucrece’ woe; 
With its seven kings conquering the nations round; 
Nor all it wrought, by Roman worthies borne 


#**To clear the incumber’d laws.” 
The code of laws was abridged and re- 
formed by Justinian. 

5‘ Tn Christ one nature only.” Jus- 
tinian is said to have been a follower of 
heretical opinions held by Eutyches, 
who taught that in Christ there was but 
one nature, viz. that of the incarnate 
word. 

6“ Agapete.” Agapetus, Bishop of 
Rome, whose ‘‘ Scheda Regia,’ ad- 


dressed to the Emperor Justinian, pro- 
cured him a place among the wisest and 
most judicious writers of this century, 

7 “Who pretend its power.” The Ghi- 


bellines. 
8 “* And who oppose.” The Guelfs. 
The Horatii and 


9“ The rival three.” 
‘From the rape of the 


Curiatii. 
10 ** Down.” 

Sabine women to the violation of Lu- 

cretia. 


PARADISE 


395 


’Gainst Brennus and the Epirot prince,'! and hosts 
Of single chiefs, or states in league combined 

Of social warfare: hence, Torquatus stern, 

And Quintius ** named of his neglected locks, 
The Decii, and the Fabii hence acquired 

Their fame, which I with duteous zeal embalm. 

By it the pride of Arab hordes ** was quell’d, 
When they, led on by Hannibal, o’erpass’d 

The Alpine rocks, whence glide thy currents, Po! 
Beneath its guidance, in their prime of days 
Scipio and Pompey triumph’d; and that hill 14 
Under whose summit *° thou didst see the light, 
Rued its stern bearing. After, near the hour,'® 
When heaven was minded that o’er all the world 
His own deep calm should brood, to Cesar’s hand 
Did Rome consign it; and what then it wrought?” 
From Var unto the Rhine, saw Isere’s flood, 

Saw Loire and Seine, and every vale, that fills 


The torrent Rhone. 


What after that it wrought, 


When from Ravenna it came forth, and leap’d 
The Rubicon, was of so bold a flight, 


That tongue nor pen may follow it. 


Toward Spain 


It wheel’d its bands, then toward Dyrrachium smote, 
And on Pharsalia, with so fierce a plunge, 

E’en the warm Nile was conscious to the pang; 

Its native shores Antandros, and the streams 

Of Simois) revisited, and there 

Where Hector lies; then ill for Ptolemy 

His pennons shook again; lightening thence fell 
On Juba, and the next, upon your west, 

At sound of the Pompeian trump, return’d. 
“What following, and in its next bearer’s gripe,1® 
It wrought, is now by Cassius and Brutus 

Bark’d of in Hell; and by Perugia’s sons, 


1 The Epirot prince.” King Pyr- 
rhus. 

12“ Quintius.”” Quintius Cincinnatus. 

18 “* Arab hordes.’ The Arabians seem 
to be put for the barbarians in general. 

14 That hill.’ The city of Fesule, 
which was sacked by the Romans after 
the defeat of Catiline. 

15“ Under whose summit.” At the 
foot of which is situated Florence, thy 
birth-place.”’ 


16 “* Near the hour.’”? Near the time of 
our Saviour’s birth. 

17 ** What then it wrought.” In the 
following fifteen lines the Poet has com- 
prised the exploits of Julius Cesar, for 
which, and for the allusions in the great- 
er part of this speech of Justinian’s, I 
must refer my reader to the history of 
Rome. 

18 ** Tn its next bearer’s gripe.” With 
Augustus Cesar. 


306 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And Modena’s, was mourn’d. Hence weepeth still 
Sad Cleopatra, who, pursued by it, 

Took from the adder black and sudden death. 

With him it ran e’en to the Red Sea coast; 

With him composed the world to such a peace, 

That of his temple Janus barr’d the door. 

“ But all the mighty standard yet had wrought 
And was appointed to perform thereafter, 
Throughout the mortal kingdom which it sway’d, 
Falls in appearance dwindled and obscured, 

If one with steady eye and perfect thought 

On the third Cesar ?® look; for to his hands, 
The living Justice, in whose breath I move, 
Committed glory, e’en into his hands, 

To execute the vengeance of its wrath. 

“Hear now, and wonder at, what next I tell. 
After with Titus it was sent to wreak 
Vengeance for vengeance of the ancient sin. 
And, when the Lombard tooth, with fang impure, 
Did gore the bosom of the holy church, 

Under its wings, victorious Charlemain ?° 


Sped to her rescue. 


Judge then for thyself 


Of those, whom I erewhile accused to thee, 

What they are, and how grievous their offending, 
Who are the cause of all your ills. The one #4 
Against the universal ensign rears 

The yellow lilies ; 2? and with partial aim, 

That, to himself, the other ** arrogates: 

So that ’tis hard to see who most offends. 

Be yours, ye Ghibellines, to veil your hearts 
Beneath another standard: ill is this 

Follow’d of him, who severs it and justice: 

And let not with his Guelfs the new-crown’d Charles 24 


19‘* The third Cesar.”” The eagle in 
the hand of Tiberius, the third of the 
Cesars, outdid all its achievements, both 
past and future, by becoming the instru- 
ment of that mighty and mysterious act 
of satisfaction made to the divine justice 
in the crucifixion of our Lord. 

20 “* Charlemain.”” Dante could not be 
ignorant that the reign of Justinian was 
long prior to that of Charlemain; but 
the spirit of the former Emperor is rep- 
resented, both in this instance and in 
what follows, as conscious of the events 
that had taken place after his own time. 


21° The one.” The Guelf party. 

22“*The yellow lilies.” The French 
ensign. 

23 “The other.””_ The Ghibelline party. 

*4“* Charles.” The commentators ex- 
pera this to mean Charles II, King of 

aples and Sicily. Is it not more likely 
to allude to Charles of Valois, son of 
Philip III of France, who was sent for, 
about this time, into Italy by Pope Bon- 
iface, with the promise of being made 
aed tibte See G, Villani, lib. viii. cap. 
xlii. 


PARADISE 


Assail it; but those talons hold in dread, 


397 


Which from a lion of more lofty port 
Have rent the casing. Many a time ere now 
The sons have for the sire’s transgression wail’d: 
Nor let him trust the fond belief, that heaven 
Will truck its armor for his lilied shield. 

“This little star is furnish’d with good spirits, 
Whose mortal lives were busied to that end, 
That honor and renown might wait on them: 
And, when desires *° thus err in their intention, 
True love must needs ascend with slacker beam. 
But it is part of our delight, to measure 
Our wages with the merit; and admire 


The close proportion. 


Hence doth heavenly justice 


Temper so evenly affection in us, 

It ne’er can warp to any wrongfulness. 

Of diverse voices is sweet music made: 

So in our life the different degrees 

Render sweet harmony among these wheels. 
“Within the pearl, that now encloseth us, 

Shines Romeo’s light,?* whose goodly deed and fair 

Met ill acceptance. But the Provengals, 

That were his foes, have little cause for mirth. 

Il] shapes that man his course, who makes his wrong 

Of other’s worth. Four daughters 2” were there born 

To Raymond Berenger;?* and every one 

Became a queen: and this for him did Romeo, 

Though of mean state and from a foreign land. 

Yet envious tongues incited him to ask 

A reckoning of that just one, who return’d 

Twelve-fold to him for ten. Aged and poor 


25 ‘© When desires.”? When honor and 
fame are the chief motives to action, 
that love, which has Heaven for its ob- 
ject, must. necessarily become less fer- 


ent. 

26 ‘* Romeo de Villanova.” After he 
had long been faithful steward to Ray- 
mond, Count of Provence, when an ac- 
count was required from him of the 
revenues which he had carefully hus- 
banded, and his master as lavishly dis- 
bursed, he demanded the little mule, 
the staff, and the scrip, with which he 
had first entered into the Count’s ser- 
vice, a stranger pilgrim from the shrine 


of St. James, in Galicia, and parted as 
he came; nor was it ever known whence 
he was, or whither he went. 

27 Wour daughters.” Of the four 
daughters of Raymond Berenger, Mar- 
garet, the eldest, was married to Louis 

of France; Eleanor, the next, to 
Henry III of England; Sancha, the 
third, to Richard, Henry’s brother, and 
King of the Romans; and the youngest, 
Beatrix, to Charles I, King of Naples 
and Sicily, and brother to Louis. 

28 “ Raymond Berenger.” This prince, 
the last of the house of Barcelona, who 
was Count of Provence, died in 1245. 


308 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


He parted thence: and if the world did know 
The heart he had, begging his life by morsels, 
’Twould deem the praise, it yields him, scantly dealt.” 


CANTO VII 


ARGUMENT.—In consequence of what had been said by Justinian, who- 
together with the other spirits has now disappeared, some doubts 
arise in the mind of Dante respecting the human redemption. These 
difficulties are fully explained by Beatrice. 


OSANNA!? Sanctus Deus Sabaoth, 

H Superillustrans claritate tua 
Felices ignes horum malahoth.” 
Thus chanting saw I turn that substance bright,? 
With fourfold lustre to its orb again, 
Revolving; and the rest, unto their dance, 
With it, moved also; and, like swiftest sparks, 
In sudden distance from my sight were veil’d. 
Me doubt possess’d; and “ Speak,” it whisper’d me, 

“ Speak, speak unto thy lady; that she quench 
Thy thirst with drops of sweetness.” Yet blank awe, 
Which lords it o’er me, even at the sound 
Of Beatrice’s name, did bow me down 
As one in slumber held. Not long that mood 
Beatrice suffer’d: she, with such a smile, 
As might have made one blest amid the flames,’ 
Beaming upon me, thus her words began: 
“Thou in thy thought art pondering (as I deem, 
And what I deem is truth,) how just revenge 
Could be with justice punish’d: from which doubt 
I soon will free thee; so thou mark my words; 
For they of weighty matter shall possess thee. 
Through suffering not a curb upon the power 
That will’d in him, to his own profiting, 
That man, who was unborn,* condemn’d himself; 


1‘ Hosanna.” “ Hosanna holy God amid the flames. ”” So Giusto de’ Conti, 
of Sabaoth, abundantly Sea with ** Bella. Mano ” : 
thy brightness the blessed fires of these “ Qual salamandra.” 
kingdoms.”’ Che ,puommi nelle fiamme far beato. 


2“ That substance bright.” Justinian. ‘That man, who was un ” 
8“ As might have made one blest Adebe born, ; 


PARADISE 


399 


And, in himself, all, who since him have lived, 
His offspring: whence, below, the human kind 
Lay sick in grievous error many an age; 

Until is pleased the Word of God to come 
Amongst them down, to his own person joining 
The nature from its Maker far estranged, 

By the mere act of his eternal love. 

Contemplate here the wonder I unfold. 

The nature with its Maker thus conjoin’d, 
Created first was blameless, pure and good; 

But, through itself alone, was driven forth 

From Paradise, because it had eschew’d 

The way of truth and life, to evil turn’d. 

Ne’er then was penalty so just as that 

Inflicted by the cross, if thou regard 

The nature in assumption doom’d; ne’er wrong 
So great, in reference to him, who took 

Such nature on him, and endured the doom. 

So different effects® flow’d from one act: 

For by one death God and the Jews were pleased; 
And heaven was open’d, though the earth did quake. 
Count it not hard henceforth, when thou dost hear 
That a just vengeance® was, by righteous court, 
Justly revenged. But yet I see thy mind, 

By thought on thought arising, sore perplex’d; 
And, with how vehement desire, it asks 


Solution of the maze. 


What I have heard, 


Is plain, thou say’st: but wherefore God this way 
- For our redemption chose, eludes my search. 
“ Brother! no eye of man not perfected, 
Nor fully ripen’d in the flame of love, 


May fathom this decree. 


It is a mark, 


In sooth, much aim’d at, and but little kenn’d: 
And I will therefore show thee why such way 


Was worthiest. 


5 ‘* Different effects.”” The death of 
Christ was pleasing to God, inasmuch 
as it satisfied the divine justice; and to 
the Jews, because it gratified their mal- 
ignity; and while Heaven opened for 
joy at the ransom of man, the earth 
trembled. through compassion for its 
Maker. 


The celestial love, that spurns 


6“ A just vengeance.”? The punish- 
ment of Christ by the Jews, although 
just as far as regarded the human _nat- 
ure assumed by him, and so a right- 
eous vengeance of sin, yet being unjust 
as it regarded the divine nature, was 
itself justly revenged on the Jews by 
the destruction of Jerusalem. 


310 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


All envying in its bounty, in itself 

With such effulgence blazeth, as sends forth 

All beauteous things eternal. What distils 
Immediate thence, no end of being knows; 
Bearing its seal immutably imprest. 

Whatever thence immediate falls, is free, 

Free wholly, uncontrollable by power 

Of each thing new: by such conformity 

More grateful to its author, whose bright beams, 
Though all partake their shining, yet in those 
Are liveliest, which resemble him the most. 
These tokens of pre-eminence? on man 

Largely bestow’d, if any of them fail, 

He needs must forfeit his nobility, 

No longer stainless. Sin alone is that, 

Which doth disfranchise him, and make unlike 
To the chief good; for that its light in him 

Is darken’d. And to dignity thus lost 

Is no return; unless, where guilt makes void, 

He for ill-pleasure pay with equal pain. 

Your nature, which entirely in its seed 
Transgress’d, from these distinctions fell, no less 
Than from its state in Paradise; nor means 
Found of recovery (search all methods out 

As strictly as thou may) save one of these, 

The only fords were left through which to wade: 
Either, that God had of his courtesy 

Released him merely; or else, man himself 

For his own folly by himself atoned. 

“Fix now thine eye, intently as thou canst, 
On the everlasting counsel; and explore, 
Instructed by my words, the dread abyss. 

“Man in himself had ever lack’d the means 
Of satisfaction, for he could not stoop 
Obeying, in humility so low, 

As high, he, disobeying, thought to soar: 
And, for this reason, he had vainly tried, 
Out of his own sufficiency, to pay 
7‘ These tokens of pre-eminence.” secondary causes, and consequent simili- 


The before-mentioned gifts of immedi- tude and agreeableness to the Divine 
ate creation by God, independence on Being, all at first conferred on man. 


PARADISE 


313 


The rigid satisfaction. Then behoved 

That God should by his own ways lead him back 
Unto the life, from whence he fell, restored: 
By both his ways, I mean, or one alone.® 
But since the deed is ever prized the more, 
The more the doer’s good intent appears; 
Goodness celestial, whose broad signature 
Is on the universe, of all its ways 

To raise ye up, was fain to leave out none. 
Nor aught so vast or so magnificent, 

Hither for him who gave or who received, 
Between the last night and the primal day, 


Was or can be. 


For God more bounty show’d, 


Giving himself to make man capable 

Of his return to life, than had the terms 
Been mere and unconditional release. 

And for his justice, every method else 
Were all too scant, had not the Son of God 
Humbled himself to put on mortal flesh. 

* Now, to content thee fully, I revert; 
And further in some part® unfold my speech, 
That thou mayst see it clearly as myself. 

“TI see, thou sayst, the air, the fire I see, 
The earth and water, and all things of them 
Compounded, to corruption turn, and soon 


Dissolve. 


Yet these were also things create 


Because, if what were told me, had been true, 

They from corruption had been therefore free. 
“The angels, O my brother! and this clime 

Wherein thou art, impassable and pure, 

I call created, even as they are 

In their whole being. But the elements, 

Which thou hast named, and what of them is made, 

Are by created virtue inform’d: create, 


8‘* By both his ways, I mean, or one 
alone.”” Either by mercy and justice 
united, or by mercy alone. 

®‘* Tn some part.’’ She reverts to that 
part of her discourse where she had 
said that what proceeds immediatel 
from God “no end of being knows.” 
She then proceeds to tell him that the 


elements, which, though he knew them © 


to be created, he yet saw dissolved, re- 
ceived their form not immediately from 


God, but from a virtue or power created 
by God; that the soul of brutes and 
lants is in like manner drawn forth 
y the stars with a combination of those 
elements meetly tempered, ‘‘ di comples- 
sion potenziata”; but that the angels 
and the heavens may be said to be 
created in that very manner in which 
they exist, without any intervention of 
agency. 


312 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Their substance; and create, the informing virtue 
In these bright stars, that round them circling move. 
The soul of every brute and of each plant, 
The ray and motion of the sacred lights, 
Draw from complexion with meet power endued. 
But this our life the eternal good inspires 
Immediate, and enamors of itself; 
So that our wishes rest forever here. 

“And hence thou mayst by inference conclude 
Our resurrection certain, if thy mind 
Consider how the human flesh was framed, 
When both our parents at the first were made.” 


CANTO VIII 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet ascends with Beatrice to the third Heaven, which 
is the planet Venus; and here finds the soul of Charles Martel, King 
of Hungary, who had been Dante’s friend on earth, and who now, 
after speaking of the realms to which he was heir, unfolds the cause 
why children differ in disposition from their parents. 


HE world? was, in its day of peril dark, 
Wont to believe the dotage of fond love, 
From the fair Cyprian deity, who rolls 
In her third epicycle, shed on men 
By stream of potent radiance: therefore they 
Of elder time, in their old error blind, 
Not her alone with sacrifice adored 
And invocation, but like honors paid 
To Cupid and Dione, deem’d of them 
Her mother, and her son, him whom they feign’d 
To sit in Dido’s bosom: and from her, 
Whom I have sung preluding, borrow’d they 
The appellation of that star, which views 
Now obvious, and now averse, the sun. 
I was not ware that I was wafted up 
1“ The world.” The Poet, on his ar- under the name of Venus, they paid 
rival at the third Heaven, tells us that divine honors; as they worshipped the 
the world, in its days of heathen dark- supposed mother and son of Venus, un- 


ness, believed the influence of sensual der the names of Dione and Cupid. 
love to proceed from the star, to which, 


he tel 


PARADISE 313 


Into its orb; but the new loveliness, 
That graced my lady, gave me ample proof 
That we had enter’d there. And as in flame 
A sparkle is distinct, or voice in voice 
Discern’d, when one its even tenor keeps, 
The other comes and goes; so in that light 
I other luminaries saw, that coursed 
In circling motion, rapid more or less, 
As their eternal vision each impels. 
Never was blast from vapor charged with cold, 
Whether invisible to eye or no, 
Descended with such speed, it had not seem’d 
To linger in dull tardiness, compared 
To those celestial lights, that toward us came, 
Leaving the circuit of their joyous ring, 
Conducted by the lofty seraphim. 
And after them, who in the van appear’d, 
Such an Hosanna sounded as hath left 
Desire, ne’er since extinct in me, to hear 
Renew’d the strain. Then, parting from the rest, 
One near us drew, and sole began: “ We all 
Are ready at thy pleasure, well disposed 
To do thee gentle service. We are they 
To whom thou in the world erewhile didst sing; 
‘O ye! whose intellectual ministry 
Moves the third heaven:’ and in one orb we roll, 
One motion, one impulse, with those who rule 
Princedoms in heaven; yet are of love so full, 
That to please thee ’twill be as sweet to rest.” 
After mine eyes had with meek reverence 
Sought the celestial guide, and were by her 
Assured, they turn’d again unto the light, 
Who had so largely promised; and with voice 
That bare the lively pressure of my zeal, 
“Tell who ye are,’ I cried. Forthwith it grew 
In size and splendor, through augmented joy; 
And thus it answer’d: “ A short date, below, 
The world possess’d me. Had the time been more,? 
2‘*Had the time been more.” The Charles II, King of Naples and Sieire 


spirit now speaking is Charles Martel, to which dominions, dying in his fat 
crowned King of Hungary, and son of _ er’s lifetime, he did not succeed. The 


314 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Much evil, that will come, had never chanced. 

My gladness hides thee from me, which doth shine 
Around, and shroud me, as an animal 

In its own silk enswathed. Thou lovedst me well,’ 
And hadst good cause; for had my sojourning 

Been longer on the earth, the love I bare thee 


Had put forth more than blossoms. 


The left bank,* 


That Rhone, when he hath mix’d with Sorga, laves, 
In me its lord expected, and that horn 

Of fair Ausonia,® with its boroughs old, 

Bari, and Croton, and Gaeta piled, 

From where the Trento disembogues his waves, 
With Verde mingled, to the salt-sea flood. 

Already on my temples beam’d the crown, 

Which gave me sovereignty over the land® 

By Danube wash’d, whenas he strays beyond 


The limits of his German shores. 


The realm, 


Where, on the gulf by stormy Eurus lash’d, 

Betwixt Pelorus and Pachynian heights, 

The beautiful Trinacria’ lies in gloom 

(Not through Typhoéus,® but the vapory cloud 

Bituminous upsteam’d), that too did look 

To have its sceptre wielded by a race 

Of monarchs, sprung through me from Charles and Rodolph,® 
Had not ill-lording,!° which doth desperate make 

The people ever, in Palermo raised 


evil, that would have been prevented by 
the longer life of Charles Martel, was 
that resistance which his brother Rob- 
ert, King of Sicily, who succeeded him, 
made to the Emperor Henry VII. 

’“ Thou lovedst me well.” Charles 
Martel might have been known to our 
Poet at Florence, whither he came to 
meet his father in 1295, the year of his 
death. The retinue and the habiliments 
of the young monarch are minutely de- 
scribed by G. Villani, who adds that 
‘‘ he remained more than twenty days in 
Florence, waiting for his father, King 
Charles, and his brothers; during which 
time great honor was done him by the 
Florentines, and he showed no less love 
toward them, and he was much in favor 
with all.”” Lib. vii. cap. xiii. His broth- 
er Robert, King of Naples, was the 
friend of Petrarch. 

4“ The left bank.’”? Provence. 

5 “« ___ That. horn 

Of fair Ausonia.” 

The Kingdom of Naples. 


6“ The land.” Hungary. . , 

7**The beautiful Trinacria.” Sicily; 
so called from its three promontories, 
of which Pachynus and Pelorus, here 
mentioned, are two. 

8“ Typhoéus.” The giant, whom Ju- 
piter is fabled to have overwhelmed un- 
der the mountain /Etna, from whence 
he vomited forth smoke and flame. 

®“ Sprung through me from Charles 
and Rodolph.” Sicily would be still 
ruled by a race of monarchs, descended 
through me from Charles I and Ro- 
dolph I, the former my grandfather, 
King of Naples and Sicily; the latter, 
Emperor of Germany, my father-in-law; 
both celebrated in the ‘‘ Purgatory,” 
Canto vii. : 

10‘ Had not ill-lording.” If the ill- 
conduct of our governors in Sicily had 
not excited the resentment and hatred 
of the people, and stimulated them to 
that dreadful massacre at the Sicilian 
vespers; in consequence of which the 
kingdom fell into the hands of Peter IIT 
of Arragon, in 1282. 


99 


PARADISE 


315. 


The shout of ‘death,’ re-echoed loud and long. 
Had but my brother’s foresight 14 kenn’d as much, 
He had been warier, that the greedy want 
Of Catalonia might not work his bale. 
And truly need there is that he forecast, 
Or other for him, lest more freight be laid 
On his already over-laden bark. 
Nature in him, from bounty fallen to thrift, 
Would ask the guard of braver arms, than such 
As only care to have their coffers fill’d.” 

“My liege! it doth enhance the joy thy words 
Infuse into me, mighty as it is, 
To think my gladness manifest to thee, 
As to myself, who own it, when thou look’st 
Into the source and limit of all good, 
There, where thou markest that which thou dost speak, 


Thence prized of me the more. 


Glad thou hast made me: 


Now make intelligent, clearing the doubt 

Thy speech hath raised in me; for much I muse, 
How bitter can spring up,!? when sweet is sown.” 

I thus inquiring; he forthwith replied: 

“If I have power to show one truth, soon that 

Shall face thee, which thy questioning declares 
Behind thee now conceal’d. The Good, that guides 
And blessed makes this realm which thou dost mount, 
Ordains its providence to be the virtue 

In these great bodies: nor the natures only 

The all-perfect mind provides for, but with them 


11** My brother’s foresight.’’ He seems 
to tax his brother Robert with employ- 
ing necessitous and greedy Catalonians 
to administer the affairs of his king- 


om. 

12“ How bitter can spring up.” ‘‘ How 
a covetous son can spring from a lib- 
eral father.”” Yet that father has himself 
been accused of avarice in the ‘‘ Purga- 
tory,’’ Canto xx. 78; though his general 
character was that of a _ bounteous 
prince, 

13° The Good.”? The Supreme Being 
uses these spheres as the intelligent in- 
struments of his providence in the con- 
duct of terrestrial natures; so that these 
natures cannot but be conducted aright, 
unless these heavenly bodies ‘should 
themselves fail from not having been 
made perfect at first, or the Creator of 
them should fail. To this Dante re- 


plies that Nature, he is satisfied, thus 
directed must do her part. Charles Mar- 
tel then reminds him that he had 
learned from Aristotle that human so- 
ciety requires a variety of conditions, 
and consequently a variety of qualifica- 
tions in its members. Accordingly, men, 
he concludes, are born with different 
owers and capacities, caused by the 
influence of the heavenly bodies at the 
time of their nativity; on which influ- 
ence, and not on their parents, those 
powers and capacities depend. Having 
thus resolved the question proposed, 
Charles Martel adds, by way of cor- 
rollary, that the want of observing 
their natural bent in the destination of 
men to their several offices in life, is 
the occasion of much of the disorder 
that prevails in the world. 


316 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That which preserves them too; for naught, that lies 
Within the range of that unerring bow, 

But is as level with the destined aim, 

As ever mark to arrow’s point opposed. 

Were it not thus, these heavens, thou dost visit, 
Would their effect so work, it would not be 

Art, but destruction; and this may not chance, 

If the intellectual powers, that move these stars, 
Fail not, and who, first faulty made them, fail. 
Wilt thou this truth more clearly evidenced?” 


To whom I thus: 


“Tt is enough: no fear 


I see, lest nature in her part should tire.” 


He straight rejoin’d: 


“Say, were it worse for man, 


If he lived not in fellowship on earth?” 


“Yea,” answerd. £34) 


nor here a reason needs.” 


“And may that be, if different estates 
Grow not of different duties in your life? 
Consult your teacher,'* and he tells you ‘ no.’” 

Thus did he come, deducing to this point, 


And then concluded: 


“ For this cause behoves, 


The roots, from whence your operations come, 


Must differ. 


Therefore one is Solon born; 


Another, Xerxes; and Melchisedec 
A third; and he a fourth, whose airy voyage 


Cost him his son.*5 


In her circuitous course, 


Nature, that is the seal to mortal wax, 

Doth well her art, but no distinction owns 
*Twixt one or other household. Hence befalls 
That Esau is so wide of Jacob: hence 
Quirinus 1° of so base a father springs, 


He dates from Mars his lineage. 


Were it not 


That Providence celestial overruled, 
Nature, in generation, must the path 
Traced by the generator still pursue 


14 “6 Consult your teacher.” Aristotle, 

* De, Rep.” lib. iii, cap.. 4: .Sincea 
State is made up of members differing 
from one another (for even as an ani- 
mal, in the first instance, consists of 
soul and body; and the soul, of reason 
and desire; and a family, of man and 
woman; and property, of master and 
slave; in like manner a state consists 
both of all these, and besides these of 


other dissimilar kinds); it ndeerarity 
follows that the excellence of all the 
members of the State cannot be one 
and the. same. ‘: 
‘—— whose airy voyage 
Cost him his son.’ 

Dedalus. 

16 ** Ouirinus.”” Romulus, born of so 
obscure a father that his narentage was 
attributed to Mars. 


PARADISE 317 


Unswervingly. Thus place I in thy sight 

- That, which was late behind thee. But, in sign 
Of more affection for thee, ’tis my will 
Thou wear this corollary. Nature ever, 
Finding discordant fortune, like all seed 
Out of its proper climate, thrives but ill. 
And were the world below content to mark 
And work on the foundation nature lays, 
I would not lack supply of excellence. 
But ye perversely to religion strain 
Him, who was born to gird on him the sword, 
And of the fluent phraseman make your king: 
Therefore your steps have wander’d from the path.” 


CANTO Ix 


ARGUMENT.—The next spirit who converses with our Poet in the planet 
Venus, is the amorous Cunizza. To her succeeds Folco, or Folques, 
the Provengal bard, who declares that the soul of Rahab the harlot 
is there also; and then, blaming the Pope for his neglect of the Holy 
Land, prognosticates some reverse to the papal power. 


FTER solution of my doubt, thy Charles, 
A O fair Clemenza,* of the treachery? spake, 
That must befall his seed; but, ‘ Tell it not,’ 

Said he, “and let the destined years come round.” 
Nor may I tell thee more, save that the meed 
Of sorrow well-deserved shall quit your wrongs. 

And now the visage of that saintly light 
Was to the sun, that fills it, turn’d again, 
As to the good, whose plenitude of bliss 
Sufficeth all. O ye misguided souls! 
Infatuate, who from such a good estrange 
Your hearts, and bend your gaze on vanity, 
Alas for you!—And lo! toward me, next, 
Another of those splendent forms approach’d 
That, by its outward brightening, testified 


2“ Q© fair Clemenza.’’ Daughter of by Robert, in exclusion of his brother’s 
Charles Martel, and second wife of son Carobert, or Charles Robert, the 
Louis X of France. rightful heir. 

*“ The treachery.”” He alludes to the *3 That saintly light.” Charles Mare 
occupation of the Kingdom of Sicily tel. 


338 


The will it had to pleasure me. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


The eyes 


Of Beatrice, resting, as before, 
Firmly upon me, manifested forth 


Approval of my wish. 


“ And QO,” I cried, 


“ Blest spirit! quickly be my will perform’d; 
And prove thou to me,* that my inmost thoughts 


I can reflect on thee.” 


Thereat the light, 


That yet was new to me, from the recess, 
Where it before was singing, thus began, 


As one who joys in kindness: 


“In that part® 


Of the depraved Italian land, which lies 
Between Rialto and the fountain-springs 

Of Brenta and of Piava, there doth rise, 

But to no lofty eminence, a hill, 

From whence erewhile a firebrand did descend, 


That sorely shent the region. 


From one root 


I and it sprung; my name on earth Cunizza:® 
And here I glitter, for that by its light 


\This star o’ercame me. 


Yet I naught repine," 
or grudge myself the cause of this my lot: 
hich haply vulgar hearts can scarce conceive. 
“ This® jewel, that is next me in our Heaven, 


Lustrous and costly, great renown hath left, 
And not to perish, ere these hundred years 

Five times® absolve their round. Consider thou, 
If to excel be worthy man’s endeavor, 


When such life may attend the first.1° 


4“Prove thou to me.” The thoughts 
of all created minds being seen by the 
Deity, and all that is in the Deity being 
the object of vision to beatified spirits, 
such spirits must consequently see the 
thoughts of all created minds. Dante, 
therefore, requests of the spirit, who 
now approaches him, a proof of this 
truth with regard to his own thoughts. 
See v. 70. 

5“ Tn that part.’”’ Between Rialto in 
the Venetian territory, and the sources 
of the rivers Brenta and Piava, is situ- 
ated a castle called Romano, the birth- 
place of the famous tyrant Ezzolino or 
Azzolino, the brother of Cunizza, who 
is now speaking. The tyrant we have 
seen in “the river of blood,” “ Hell,” 
Canto xii. v. 110. 

8 “ Cynizza.”’ The adventures of Cu- 
nizza, overcome by the influence of her 
star, are related by the chronicler Ro- 
landino, of Padua. She eloped from 
her first husband, Richard of St. Boni- 
face, in the company of Sordello, with 


° 


Yet they 


whom she is supposed to have cohabited 
before her marriage: then lived with a 
soldier of Trevigi, whose wife was liv- 
ing at the same time in the same city; 
and 'on his being murdered by her 
brother the tyrant, was by her brother 
married to a nobleman of Braganzo: 
lastly, when he also had fallen by the 
same hand, she, after her  brother’s 
death, was again wedded in Verona. 

7 Yet I nought repine.” am not 
dissatisfied that I am not allotted a 
higher place.” 

8“ This.”” Folco of Genoa, a cele- 
Provencal poet, commonly 
termed Folques of Marseilles, of which 
place he was perhaps bishop. 

®“* Five times.” The 500 years are 
elapsed. 

10“ When such life may attend the 
first.” When the mortal life of man 
may be attended be so lasting and gio- 
rious a memory, which is a kind of sec- 
ond life. 


PARADISE 


319 


Care not for this, the crowd" that now are girt 

By Adice and Tagliamento, still 

Impenitent, though scourged. The hour is near}? 

When for their stubbornness, at Padua’s marsh 

The water shall be changed, that laves Vicenza. 

And where Cagnano meets with Sile, one 

Lords it, and bears his head aloft, for whom 

The web** is now a-warping. Feltro*® too 

Shall sorrow for its godless shepherd’s fault, 

Of so deep stain, that never, for the like, 

Was Malta’s*?® bar unclosed. ‘Too large should be 

The skillet?” that would hold Ferrara’s blood, 

And wearied he, who ounce by ounce would weigh it, 

The which this priest,?® in show of party-zeal, 

Courteous will give; nor will the gift ill suit 

The country’s custom. We descry above 

Mirrors, ye call them thrones, from which to us 

Reflected shine the judgments of our God: 

Whence these our sayings we avouch for good.” 
She ended; and appear’d on other thoughts 

Intent, re-entering on the wheel she late 


Had left. 


That other joyance meanwhile wax’d 


A thing to marvel at, in splendor glowing, 

Like choicest ruby stricken by the sun. 

For, in that upper clime, effulgence?® comes 

Of gladness, as here laughter: and below, 

As the mind saddens, murkier grows the shade. 


1“ The crowd.” The people who in- 
habited the tract of country bounded 
by the river Tagliamento to the east and 
Adice to the west. 

12“ The hour is near.”’ Cunizza fore- 
tells the defeat of Giacopo da Carrara 
and the Paduans, by Can Grande, at Vi- 
cenza, on September 18, 1314. 

18 “* One.”’ She predicts also the fate 
of Riccardo da Camino, who is said to 
have been murdered at Trevigi (where 
the rivers Sile and Cagnano meet), while 
he was engaged in playing at chess. 

14 “ The web.” The net, or snare, in- 
to which he is destined to fall. 

15“ Feltro.” The Bishop of Feltro 
having received a number of fugitives 
from Ferrara, who were in opposition 
to the Pope, under a promise of pro- 
tection, afterward gave them up; so that 
they were reconducted to that city, and 
the greater part of them there put to 

eath. 

16 “* Matlta’s.”” 


A tower, either in 


the citadel of Padua, which, under the 
tyranny of Ezzolino, had been “ with 
many a foul and midnight murder fed”’; 
or (as some say) near a river of the 
same name, that falls into the Lake of 
Bolsena, in which the Pope was accus- 
tomed to imprison such as had been 
guilty of an irremissible sin. 

Ww“ The skillet.” The blood shed 
could not be contained in such a vessel, 
if it were of the usual size. 

18 “ This priest.’? The bishop, who, 
to show himself a zealous partisan of 
the Pope, had committed the above- 
mentioned act of treachery. The com- 
mentators are not agreed as to the name 
of this faithless prelate. Troya calls 
him Alessandra Novello, and relates the 
circumstances at full. 

19 “ Effulgence.”? As joy is expressed 
by laughter on earth, so is it by an in- 
crease of splendor in Paradise; and, on 
the contrary, grief is betokened in Hell 
by augmented darkness. 


320 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


“God seeth all: and in him is thy sight,” 


Said [, “ blest spirit! 


Therefore will of his 


Cannot to thee be dark. Why then delays 

Thy voice to satisfy my wish untold; 

That voice, which joins the inexpressive song, 

Pastime of Heaven, the which those ardors sing, 

That cowl them with six shadowing wings*® outspread? 
I would not wait thy asking, wert thou known 

To me, as thoroughly I to thee am known.” 

He, forthwith answering, thus his words began: 
“The valley of waters,?4 widest next to that?? 
Which doth the earth engarland, shapes its course, 
Between discordant shores,”* against the sun 
Inward so far, it makes meridian** there, 


Where was before the horizon. 


Of that vale 


Dwelt I upon the shore, ’twixt Ebro’s stream 
And Macra’s,?® that divides with passage brief 


Genoan bounds from Tuscan. 


East and west 


Are nearly one to Begga”® and my land 

Whose haven?’ erst was with its own blood warm. 
Who knew my name, were wont to call me Folco; 
And I did bear impression of this heaven,?® 

That now bears mine: for not with fiercer flame 
Glow’d Belus’ daughter,?® injuring alike 

Sichzeus and Creusa, than did I, 

Long as it suited the unripen’d down 

That fledged my cheek; nor she of Rhodope,*° 
That was beguiled of Demophoon ; 

Nor Jove’s son,*4 when the charms of Iole 


Were shrined within his heart. 


And yet: there bides 


No sorrowful repentance here, but mirth, 


** Above 


20 “* Six shadowing wings.” 
each one had 


it stood the seraphims: 
six wings.’’—Isaiah, vi. 2. 

21 ** The valley 
Mediterranean Sea. 

22 ** That.” The great ocean. 

23 ** Discordant shores.’’ Europe and 
Africa. 

24‘ Meridian.” Extending to the east, 
the Mediterranean at last reaches the 
coast of Palestine, which is on its hor- 
izon when it enters the Straits of Gib- 
raltar. 

25 *¢ ___ "twixt Ebro’ s stream 

And Macra’s.’ 
Ebro, a river to the west, and Macra, 


of waters.” The. 


a river to the east of Genoa where Folco 
was born; others think that Marseilles, 
and not Genoa, is here described; and 
then Ebro must be understood of the 
river in Spain. 

26 “ Begga.’”? A place in Africa. 

27 ** Whose haven.” Alluding to the 
terrible slaughter of the Genoese made 
by the Saracens in 936. 

28 “ This heaven.” The planet Venus, 
by which Folco declares himself to have 
been formerly influenced, 

* “ Belus’ aes: ” Dido. 

“She of Rhodope.” Phyllis. 
si ** Jove’s son.” ercules. 


PARADISE 322 


Not for the fault (that doth not come to mind) 
But for the virtue, whose o’erruling sway 
And providence have wrought thus quaintly, 
The skill is look’d into, that fashioneth 
With such effectual working, and the good 
Discern’d accruing to the lower world 

From this above. But fully to content 

Thy wishes all that in this sphere have birth, 
Demands my further parle. Inquire thou wouldst, 
Who of this light is denizen, that here 

Beside me sparkles, as the sun-beam doth 

On the clear wave. Know then, the soul of Rahab*? 
Is in that gladsome harbor; to our tribe 

United, and the foremost rank assign’d. 

She to this heaven,®* at which the shadow ends 

Of your sublunar world, was taken up, 

First, in Christ’s triumph, of all souls redeem’d. 
For well behoved, that, in some part of heaven, 
She should remain a trophy, to declare | 

The mighty conquest won with either palm; *4 

For that she favor’d first the high exploit 

Of Joshua on the Holy Land, whereof 

The Pope*® recks little now. Thy city, plant 

Of him,** that on his Maker turn’d the back, 

And of whose envying so much woe hath sprung, 
Engenders and expands the cursed flower," 

That hath made wander both the sheep and lambs, 
Turning the shepherd to a wolf. For this, 

The gospel and great teachers laid aside, 

The decretals,** as their stuft margins show, 

Are the sole study. Pope and Cardinals, 


Here 


82 ““ Rahab.”? Heb. xi. 31. 88“ The decretals.”” The canon law. 
88“ This Heaven.” ‘“‘ This planet of So in the “ De Monarchia,” lib. iii. p. 
Venus, at which the shadow of the earth 137: “‘ There are also a third set, whom 
ends, as Ptolemy writes in his ‘ Alma- they call Decretalists. These, alike ig- 


gest.’ ”—Vellutello. 

84 “ With either palm.’? By both his 
hands nailed to the cross. 

3“ The Pope.” ‘“ Who cares not 
that the Holy Land is in the possession 
of the Saracens.”’ 

86 “Of him.’’ Of Satan. 

87 “The cursed flower.”? The coin of 
Florence, called the florin; the covetous 


desire of which has excited the Pope to 
sO much evil. 


norant of theology and philosophy, re- 
lying wholly on their decretals (which 
I indeed esteem not unworthy of rever- 
ence), in the hope I suppose of obtain- 
ing for them a paramount influence, 
derogate from the authority of the em- 
pire. Nor is this to be wondered_ at, 
when I have heard one of them saying, 
and impudently maintaining, that tradi- 
tions are the foundation of the faith of 
the Church.” 


322 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Intent on these, ne’er journey but in thought 
To Nazareth, where Gabriel oped his wings. 
Yet it may chance, ere long, the Vatican,°*® 
And other most selected parts of Rome, 

That were the grave of Peter’s soldiery, 

Shall be deliver’d from the adulterous bond.” 


CANTO X 


ARGUMENT.—Their next ascent carries them into the sun, which is the 


fourth Heaven. 


Here they are encompassed with a wreath of 
blessed spirits, twelve in number. 


Thomas Aquinas, who is one of 


these, declares the names and endowments of the rest. 


OOKING into his first-born with the love, 
Which breathes from both eternal, the first Might 
Ineffable, wherever eye or mind 
Can roam, hath in such order all disposed, 
As none may see and fail to enjoy. Raise, then, 
O reader! to the lofty wheels, with me, 
Thy ken directed to the point,’ whereat 
One motion strikes on the other. There begin 
Thy wonder of the mighty Architect, 
Who loves his work so inwardly, his eye 


Doth ever watch it. 


See, how thence oblique? 


Brancheth the circle, where the planets roll 

To pour their wished influence on the world; 
Whose path not bending thus, in heaven above* 
Much virtue would be lost, and here on earth 
All power well-nigh extinct: or, from direct 
Were its departure distant more or less, 


39 “The Vatican.” He alludes either 
to the death of Pope Boniface VIII or 
to the coming of the Emperor Henry 
VII into Italy; or else to the transfer 
of the Holy See from Rome to Avignon, 
which took place in the pontificate of 
Clement 

1“ The point.” To that part of 
heaven where the equinoctial circle and 
the Zodiac intersect each other, where 
the common motion of the heavens 
from east to west may be said to strike 
with greatest force against the motion 
proper to the planets: and this reper- 
cussion, as it were, is here the strong- 


est, because the velocity of each is ine 
creased to the utmost by their respece 
tive distances from the poles. Such at 
least is the system of Dante. 

2 “ Oblique.”” The Zodiac. 

3 “Tn heaven above.”’ If the planets 
did not preserve that order in which 
they move, they would not receive nor 
transmit their due influences; and if the 
Zodiac were not thus oblique; if toward 
the north it either passed, or went short 
of the tropic of Cancer, or else toward 
the south it passed, or went short of 
the tropic of Capricorn, it would not 
divide the seasons as it now does. 


PARADISE 


323 


1’ the universal order, great defect 

Must, both in Heaven and here beneath, ensue. 
Now rest thee, reader! on thy bench, and muse 

Anticipative of the feast to come; 

So shall delight make thee not feel thy toil. 

Lo! I have set before thee; for thyself 

Feed now: the matter I indite, henceforth 


Demands entire my thought. 


Join’d with the part,* 


Which late we told of, the great minister ® 

Of nature, that upon the world imprints 

The virtue of the heaven, and doles out 

Time for us with his beam, went circling on 

Along the spires,* where’ each hour sooner comes; 

And I was with him, weetless of ascent, 

But as a man,’ that weets him come, ere thinking. 
For Beatrice, she who passeth on 

So suddenly from good to better, time 

Counts not the act, oh then how great must needs 


Have been her brightness! 


What there was i’ th’ sun, 


(Where I had enter’d) not through change of hue, 
But light transparent—did I summon up 

Genius, art, practice—I might not so speak, 

It should be e’er imagined: yet believed 

It may be, and the sight be justly craved. 

And if our fantasy fail of such height, 

What marvel, since no eye above the sun 


Hath ever travel’d? 


Such are they dwell here, 


Fourth family® of the Omnipotent Sire, 
Who of his spirit and of his offspring? shows; 
And holds them still enraptured with the view. 


And thus to me Beatrice: 


“ Thank, oh thank 


The Sun of angels, him, who by his grace 
To this perceptible hath lifted thee.” 
Never was heart in such devotion bound, 


«The part.”’ The above-mentioned 
intersection of the equinoctial circle and 
the Zodiac. 

5 “ Minister.” The su 

@ * Along the spires. a ‘According to 
our Poet’s system, as the earth is mo- 
tionless, the sun passes, by a spiral 
motion, from one tropic to another. 

“Where.” In which the sun rises 


earlier every day after the vernal 
equinox. 
8 “ But as a fats * That is, he was 
quite insensible of i 
‘ Fourth family.” The inhabitants 
of. the sun, the fourth planet. 

“ Of his spirit and of his offspring.” 
The procession of the third, and the 
ae ae of the second person in the 

rinity. 


324 _ THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And with complacency so absolute 

Disposed to render up itself to God, 

As mine was at those words: and so entire 
The love for Him, that held me, it eclipsed 
Beatrice in oblivion.. Naught displeased 
Was she, but smiled thereat so joyously, 
That of her laughing eyes the radiance brake 
And scatter’d my collected mind abroad. 

Then saw I a bright band, in liveliness 
Surpassing, who themselves did make the crown, 
And us their centre: yet more sweet in voice, 
Than, in their visage, beaming. Cinctured thus, 
Sometime Latona’s daughter we behold, 

When the impregnate air retains the thread 

That weaves her zone. In the celestial court, 
Whence I return, are many jewels found, 

So dear and beautiful, they cannot brook 
Transporting from that realm: and of these lights 
Such was the song.** Who doth not prune his wing 
To soar up thither, let him?* look from thence 

For tidings from the dumb. When, singing thus, 
Those burning suns had circled round us thrice, 

As nearest stars around the fixed pole; 

Then seem’d they like to ladies, from the dance 
Not ceasing, but suspense, in silent pause, 
Listening, till they have caught the strain anew: 
Suspended so they stood: and, from within, 

Thus heard I one, who spake: “ Since with its beam 
The grace, whence true love lighteth first his flame, 
That after doth increase by loving, shines 

So multiplied in thee, it leads thee up 

Along this ladder, down whose hallow’d steps 
None e’er descend, and mount them not again; 
Who from his phial should refuse thee wine 

To slake thy thirst, no less constrained?® were, 
Than water flowing not unto the sea. 


11 “ Such was the song.” The song of any intelligence at all of that place, for 


these spirits was ineffable. It was like it surpasses description. 

a jewel so highly prized, that the expor- 18** No less constrained.”” ‘* The rivers 
tation of it to another country is pro- might as easily cease to flow toward the 
hibited by law. sea, as we could deny thee thy request.’”* 


13 “ Let him.” Let him not expect 


PARADISE 


325 


Thou fain wouldst hear, what plants are these, that bloom 
In the bright garland, which, admiring, girds 

This fair dame round, who strengthens thee for heaven. 
J, then,'* was of the lambs, that Dominic 

Leads, for his saintly flock, along the way 

Where well they thrive, not swol’n with vanity. 

He, nearest on my right hand, brother was, 

And master to me: Albert of Cologne?® 

Is this; and, of Aquinum, Thomas?® I. 

If thou of all the rest wouldst be issured, 

Let thine eye, waiting on the words I speak, 

In circuit journey round the blessed wreath. 

That next resplendence issues from the smile 

Of Gratian,!”7 who to either forum?® lent 

Such help, as favor wins in Paradise. 

The other, nearest, who adorns our quire, 

Was Peter,?® he that with the widow gave 


To holy Church his treasure. 


The fifth light,2° 


Goodliest of all, is by such love inspired, 

That all your world craves tidings of his doom :?1 
Within, there is the lofty light, endow’d 

With sapience so profound, if truth be truth, 


14 “7, then.” ‘* I was of the Domeni- 
can order.” 

18 “‘Albert of Cologne.” Albertus 
Magnus was born at Laugingen, in 
Thuringia, in 1193, and studied at Paris 
and at Padua; at the latter_of which 
places he entered into the Domenican 
order. He then taught theology in va- 
rious parts of Germany, and particularly 
at Cologne. Thomas Aquinas was his 
favorite pupil. In 1260 he reluctantly 
accepted the bishopric of Ratisbon, and 
in two years after resigned it, and re- 
turned to his cel’ in Cologne, where the 
remainder of his life was passed in su- 
perintending the school, and in com- 
posing his voluminous works on divin- 
ity and natural science. He died in 
1280. The absurd imputation of his 
having dealt in the magical art is well 
known; and his biographers take some 
pains to clear him. 

16 “ Of Aquinum, Thomas.’’ Thomas 
Aquinas, of whom Bucer is reported to 
have said, “ Take but Thomas away, 
and I will overturn the Church of 
Rome ”’; and whom Hooker terms “ the 
greatest among the school divines ”’— 
(“ Eccl. Pol.” b. iii. § 9), was born of 
noble parents, who anxiously but vainly 
endeavored to divert him from a life of 
celibacy and study. He died in 1274, at 
the age of forty-seven. : 

17 “* Gratian.” Gratian, a Benedictine 


Classics. Vo. 34—O 


monk belonging to the convent of St. 
Felix and Nabor, at Bologna, and by 
birth a Tuscan, composed, about the 
year 1130, for the use of the schools, an 
abridgement or epitome of canon law, 
drawn from the letters of the pontiffs, 
the decrees of councils and the writings 
of the ancient doctors. 
_ 18 “To either forum.” By reconcil- 
ing the civil with the canon law. 

1® “* Peter.”” Pietro Lombardo was of 
obscure origi.., nor is the place of his 
birth in Lombardy ascertained. With 
a recommendation from the Bishop of 
Lucca to St. Bernard, he went into - 
France to continue his studies; and for 
that purpose remained some time at 
Rheims, whence he afterward proceeded 
to Paris. Here his reputation was so 
great that Philip, brother of Louis VII, 
being chosen Bishop of Paris, resigned 
that dignity to Pietro, whose pupil he 
had been. He held his bishopric only 
one year, and died 1160. His ‘* Liber 
Sententiarum ” is highly esteemed. It 
contains a system of scholastic theology, 
so much more complete than any which 
had been yet seen, that it may be 
deemed an original work. 

20 “* The fifth light.’? Solomon. 

21 “* His doom.” It was a common 
question, it seems, whether Solomon 
were saved or no. 


326 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That with a ken of such wide amplitude 

No second hath arisen. Next behold 

That taper’s radiance,?* to whose view was shown, 
Clearliest, the nature and the ministry 

Angelical, while yet in flesh it dwelt. 

In the other little light serenely smiles 

That pleader 2* for the Christian temples, he, 

Who did provide Augustin of his lore. 

Now, if thy mind’s eye pass from light to light, 
Upon my praises following, of the eighth?* 


Thy thirst is next. 


The saintly soul, that shows 


The world’s deceitfulness, to all who hear him, 
Is, with the sight of all the good that is, 


Blest there. 


The limbs, whence it was driven, lie 


Down in Cieldauro;*° and from martyrdom 


And exile came it here. 


Lo! further on, 


Where flames the arduous spirit of Isidore ;** 
Of Bede;?7 and Richard,?* more than man, erewhile, 


In deep discernment. 


Lastly this, from whom 


Thy look on me reverteth, was the beam 

Of one, whose spirit, on high musings bent, 
Rebuked the lingering tardiness of death. 

It is the eternal light of Sigebert?® | 
Who escaped not envy, when of truth he argued, 


22“ That taper’s radiance.’ St. Di- 
onysius, the Areopagite. The famous 
Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out 
for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple 
of St. Paul, and who, under the pro- 
tection of this venerable name, gave 
laws and instructions to those that were 
desirous of raising their souls above all 
human things, in order to unite them 
to their great source by sublime con- 
templation, lived most probably in this 
century (the fourth); though some place 
him before, others after, the present 
period. 

23“ That pleader.”’ In the fifth cen- 
tury, Paulus Orosius acquired a con- 
siderable degree of reputation by the 
history he wrote to refute the cavils of 
the Pagans against Christianity, and by 
his books against the Pelagians and 
Priscillianists. 

% “The eighth.” Boétius, whose 
book ‘‘de Consolatione Philosophiz ” 
excited so much attention during the 
Middle Ages, was born about 470. In 
524 he was cruelly put to death by com- 
mand of Theodoric, either on real or 
pretended suspicion of his being en- 
gaged in a conspiracy. 


*5 “ Cieldauro.”” Boétius was buried 
at Pavia, in the monastery of St. Pietro 
in Ciel. d’Oro. 

26“ Isidore.” He was Archbishop of 
Seville during forty years, and died in 


35+ 

27 “ Bede.” Bede, whose virtues ob- 
tained him the appellation of the ‘‘ Ven- 
erable,” was born in 672, at Wearmouth 
in the bishopric of Durham, and died 
at Jarrow in. 735. Invited to Rome 
by Pope Sergius I, he preferred passing 
almost the whole of his life in the se- 
clusion of a monastery. 

#8 “ Richard.” Richard of St. Victor, 
a native either of Scotland or Ireland, 
was canon and prior of the monastery of 
that name at Paris; and died in 1173. 
He was at the head of the Mystics in 
this century; and his treatise, entitled 
the “‘ Mystical Ark,’? which contains as 
it were the marrow of this kind of the- 
ology, was received with the greatest 
avidity. 

29 ** Sigebert.”” A monk of the Abbey 
of Gemblours, who was in high repute 
at the end of the eleventh and Becanine 
of the twelfth century. 


PARADISE 327 


Reading in the straw-litter’d street.”°° Forthwith, 
As clock, that calleth up the spouse of God*! 

To win her bridegroom’s love at matin’s hour, 

Each part of other fitly drawn and urged, 

Sends out a tinkling sound, of note so sweet, 
Affection springs in well-disposed breast ; 

Thus saw I move the glorious wheel; thus heard 
Voice answering voice, so musical and soft, 

It can be known but where day endless shines. 


CANTO XI 


ArcuMENT.—Thomas Aquinas enters at large into the life and character 
of St. Francis; and then solves one of two difficulties, which he per- 
ceive é risen in Dante’s mind from what he had heard in the 
last Canto. 


FOND anxiety of mortal men! 
How vain and inconclusive arguments 
Are those, which make thee beat thy wings below. 
For statutes one, and one for aphorisms? 
Was hunting; this the priesthood follow’d; that, 
By force or sophistry, aspired to rule; 
To rob, another; and another sought, 
By civil business, wealth; one, moiling, lay 
Tangled in net of sensual delight; 
And one to wistless indolence resign’d; 
What time from all these empty things escaped, 
With Beatrice, I thus gloriously 
Was raised aloft, and made the guest of heaven. 
They of the circle to that point, each one, 
’ Where erst it was, had turn’d; and steady glow’d, 
As candle in his socket. Then within 
The lustre,’ that erewhile bespake me, smiling 
With merer gladness, heard I thus begin: 
“E’en as his beam illumes me, so I look 

Into the eternal light, and clearly mark 


80“ The straw-litter’d street.” The 1** Aphorisms.” The study of medi- 
mame of a street in Paris: the “ Rue de cine 
Fouarre.”’ 2“ The lustre.” The spirit of Thomas 
31“ The spouse of God.” The Aquinas. 


Church. 


328 


Thy thoughts, from whence they rise. 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Thou art in doubt, 


And wouldst that I should bolt my words afresh 
In such plain open phrase, as may be smooth 
To thy perception, where I told thee late 
That ‘ well they thrive’ ;* and that ‘no second such* 
Hath risen,’ which no small distinction needs: 
“The Providence, that governeth the world, 
In depth of counsel by created ken 
Unfathomable, to the end that she, 
Who with loud cries was ’spoused in precious blood, 
Might keep her footing toward her well-beloved,® 
Safe in herself and constant unto him, 
Hath two ordain’d, who should on either hand 
In chief escort her: one,’ seraphic all 
In fervency; for wisdom upon earth, 
The other,’ splendor of cherubic light. 
I but of one will tell: he tells of both, 
Who one commendeth, which of them soe’er 
Be taken: for their deeds were to one end. 
“ Between Tupino,® and the wave that falls 
From blest Ubaldo’s chosen hill, there hangs 
Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold?° 
Are wafted through Perugia’s eastern gate: 
And Nocera with Gualdo, in its: rear, 


Mourn for their heavy yoke.** 


Upon that side, 


Where it doth break its steepness most, arose 

A sun upon the world, as duly this 

From Ganges doth: therefore let none, who speak 
Of that place, say Ascesi; for its name 

Were lamely so deliver’d; but the East,?? 

To call things rightly, be it henceforth styled. 

He was not yet much distant from his rising, 


8 “ That ‘ well they thrive.’ ”’ See the 


last Canto, v. 93. 
4 “*No second such.’” See the last 


- Canto, v. 111. 


5 “ She.”? The Church. 

6 “ Her well beloved.” Jesus. Christ. 

7 “One.” St. Francis. 

8 “The other.”? St. Dominic. 

®“ Tupino.”” Thomas Aquinas pro- 
ceeds to describe the birth-place of St. 
Francis, between Tupino, a_ rivulet 
near Assisi, or Ascesi, where the saint 
was born in 1182, and Chiascié, a stream 
that rises in a mountain near Agobbio, 


chosen by St. Ubaldo for the place 
of his retirement. 

10 “ Heat and cold.” Cold from the 
snow, and heat from. the reflection of 
the sun. 

11° Yoke.”?  Vellutello. understands 
this of the vicinity of the ‘mountain ” 
to Nocera and Gualdo;,and Venturi (as 
I have taken it) of the heavy imposi- 
tions laid.on those places by. the Peru- 
gians: 

12%* The east.” ‘This is the East, 
and Juliet is the sun.’’—Shakespeare. 


PARADISE 


329 


When his good influence ’gan to bless the earth. 
A dame,'* to whom none openeth pleasure’s gate 
More than to death, was, ’gainst his father’s will,'* 
His stripling choice: and he did make her his, 
Before the spiritual court,'® by nuptial bonds, 

And in his father’s sight: from day to day, 

Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved 
Of her first husband,*® slighted and obscure, 
Thousand and hundred years and more, remain’d 
Without a single suitor, till he came. 

Nor aught avail’d, that, with Amyclas,** she 

Was found unmoved at rumor of his voice, 

Who shook the world: nor aught her constant boldness 
Whereby with Christ she mounted on the cross, 
When Mary stay’d beneath. But not to deal 
Thus closely with thee longer, take at large 

The lovers’ titles—Poverty and Francis. 

Their concord and glad looks, wonder and love, 
And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts, 

So much, that venerable Bernard?® first 

Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace 

So heavenly, ran, yet deem’d his footing slow. 

O hidden riches! O prolific good! 

Egidius’® bares him next, and next Sylvester,?° 
And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the bride 
Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way 
The father and the master, with his spouse, 

And with that family, whom now the cord?} 

Girt humbly: nor did abjectedness of heart 


13 “* A dame.” There is in the under 
church of St. Francis, Assisi, a pict- 
ure painted by Giotto from this sub- 
ject. It is considered one of the artist’s 
best works. See Kugler’s ‘‘ Hand-book 
of the History of Painting.”’ 

14 “ *Gainst his father’s will.’’ In op- 

osition to the wishes of his natural 
ather. 

15 “* Before the spiritual court.” He 
made a vow of poverty in the presence 
of the bishop and of his natural father. 

16 “ Her first husband.” Christ. 

17 ** Amyclas.”? Lucan makes Cesar 
exclaim, on witnessing the secure pov- 
erty of the fisherman Amyclas:— 

*O happy poverty! thou greatest good 

Bestow’d by Heaven, but seldom un- 

derstood! 


Here nor the cruel spoiler seeks his 


; prey, . 4 
Nor ruthless armies take their dread- 
ful way,’’ etc.—Rowe. 


18 “ Bernard.”” Of Quintavalle; one 
of the first followers of the saint. 

1° “ Egidius.”” The third of his dis- 
ciples, who died in 1262. His work, 
entitled ‘‘ Verba Aurea,’? was published 
in 1534, at Antwerp. 

20 “ Sylvester.”? Another of his earli- 
est associates. 

71 “Whom now the cord.”’. St, Fran- 
cis bound his body with a cord, in sign 
that he considered it as a beast, and 
that it required, like a beast, to be led 
by a halter. 


33° 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son 
Of Pietro Bernardone,?? and by men 

In wonderous sort despised. But royally 

-His hard intention he to Innocent?? 

Set forth; and, from him, first received the seal 


On his religion. 


Then, when numerous flock’d 


The tribe of lowly ones, that traced his steps, 
Whose marvellous life deservedly were sung 

In heights empyreal; through Honorius’** hand 

A second crown, to deck their Guardian’s virtues, 
Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed: and when 
He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up 

In the proud Soldan’s presence,?° and there preach’d 
Christ and his followers, but found the race 
Unripen’d for conversion; back once more 

He hasted (not to intermit his toil), 


And reap’d Ausonian lands. 


On the hard rock,?® 


*Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ 
Took the last signet,?7 which his limbs two years 
Did carry. Then, the season come that he, 
Who to such good had destined him, was pleased 
To advance him to the meed, which he had earn’d 
By his self-humbling ; to his brotherhood, 
As their just heritage, he gave in charge 
His dearest lady:*% and enjoin’d their love 
And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will’d 
His goodly spirit should move forth, returning 
To its appointed kingdom; nor would have 
His body?® laid upon another bier. 

“Think now of one, who were a fit colleague 
To keep the bark of Peter, in deep sea, 
Helm’d to right point; and such our Patriarch®® was 
Therefore who follow him as he enjoins, 


22 “* Pietro Bernardone.”’ A man in 
an humble station of life at Assisi. 

23 “ Tnnocent.”? Pope Innocent IIT. 

24 “* Flonorius.”” His successor Hon- 
orius III, who granted certain privi- 
leges to. the Franciscans. 

% “In the proud Soldan’s presence.” 
The Soldan of Egypt, before whom St. 
Francis is said to have preached. 

26 “On the hard rock.”. The moun- 
tain Alverna in the Appenines. 

27 “* The last signet.”” Alluding to the 


stigmata or marks 


the 
wounds of Christ, said to have been 
found on the saint’s body. 

28 “* His dearest lady.” Poverty. 

29 “ His body.” He forbade any fu- 
neral pomp to be observed at his burial; 
and, as it is said, ordered that his re- 
mains should be deposited in a place 
where criminals were executed and in- 
terred. 

%0 “Our Patriarch.” St. Dominic, to 
whose order Thomas Aquinas belonged. 


resembling 


‘PARADISE 331 


Thou mayst be certain, take good lading in. 
But hunger of new viands tempts his flock ;*4 
So that they needs into strange pastures wide 
Must spread them: and the more remote from him 
The stragglers wander, so much more they come 
Home, to the sheep-fold, destitute of milk, 
There are of them, in truth, who fear their harm, 
And to the shepherd cleave; but these so few, 
A little stuff may furnish out their cloaks. 

“ Now, if my words be clear; if thou have ta’en 
Good heed; if that, which I have told, recall 
To mind; thy wish may be in part fulfill’d: 
For thou wilt see the plant from whence they split ;%? 
And he shall see, who girds him, what that means, 
* That well they thrive, not swol’n with vanity.’ ” 


CANTO XII. 


ARGUMENT.—A second circle of glorified souls encompasses the first. 


Buonaventura, who is one of them, celebrates the praises of St. 
Dominic, and informs Dante who the other eleven are, that are in 
this second circle or garland. 


OON as its final word the blessed flame? 
Had raised for utterance, straight the holy mill? 
Began to wheel; nor yet had once revolved, 

Or e’er another, circling, compass’d it, 
Motion to motion, song to song, conjoining; 
Song, that as much our muses doth excel, 
Our Syrens with their tuneful pipes, as ray 
Of primal splendor doth its faint reflex. 

As when, if Juno bid her handmaid forth, 
Two arches parallel, and trick’d alike, 
Span the thin cloud, the outer taking birth 
From that within (in manner of that voice® 


81 * His flock.”? The Dominicans. 8 “In manner of that voice.” One 
82*The plant from whence they rainbow giving back the image of the 
split.” ‘*‘ The rule of their order, which other, as sound is reflected by Echo, that 
the Dominicans neglect to observe.” nymph, who was melted away by her 
1“ The blessed flame.” Thomas fondness for Narcissus, as_ vapor is 
Aquinas. melted by the sun. The reader will ob- 


“The holy: mill.” The circle of serve in the text not only a second and 


Spirits. third simile within the first, but two 


332 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Whom love did melt away, as sun the mist) — 
And they who gaze, presageful call to mind 
The compact, made with Noah, of the world 

No more to be o’erflow’d; about us thus, 

Of sempiternal roses, bending, wreathed 

Those garlands twain; and to the innermost 
E’en thus the external answer’d. When the footing, 
And other great festivity, of song, 

And radiance, light with light accordant, each 
Jocund and blythe, had at their pleasure still’d, 
(E’en as the eyes, by quick volition moved, 

Are shut and raised together), from the heart 
Of one* amongst the new lights® moved a voice, 
That made me seem® like needle to the star, 

In turning to its whereabouts; and thus 


Began: 


“The love,’ that makes me beautiful, 


Prompts me toAell of the other guide, for whom 


Such good of mine is spoken. 


Where one is, 


The other worthily should also be; 

That as their warfare was alike, alike 

Should be their glory. Slow, and full of doubt, 
And with thin ranks, after its banner moved 

The army of Christ (which it so dearly cost 

To reappoint), when its imperial Head, 

Who reigneth ever, for the drooping host 

Did make provision, through grace alone, 

And not through its deserving. As thou heard’st,8 
Two champions to the succor of his spouse 


mythological and one sacred allusion 
bound up together with the whole. 
Even after this accumulation of 
imagery, the two circles of spirits, by 
whom Beatrice and Dante were en- 
compassed, are by a bold figure termed 
two garlands of mnever-fading roses. 
Indeed there is a fulness of splendor, 
even to prodigality, throughout the be- 
ginning of this Canto. 

4“ One.” St. Buonaventura, general 
of the Franciscan order, in which he 
effeeted some reformation; and one of 
the most pr oionnd divines of his age. 
He refused the archbishopric of York, 
which was offered him by Clement IV, 
but afterward was prevailed on to ac- 
cept the bishopric of Albano and a car- 
dinal’s hat. e was born at Bagnoregio 
or Bagnorea, in Tuscany, A.D. 1221, and 
died in 1274. ‘ 


5 “ Amongst the new lights.” In the 
circle that had newly surrounded the 


rst. 

6 “That made me seem.” ‘“ That 
made me turn to it, as the magnetic 
needle does to the pole.’’ 

7 ** The love.” y an act of mutual 
courtesy, Buonaventura, a Franciscan, 
is made to proclaim the praises of St. 
Dominic, as Thomas Aquinas, a Do- 
minican, has celebrated those of St. 
Francis; and in like manner each 
blames the irregularities, not of the 
other’s order, but of that to which him- 
self belonged. Even_Macchiavelli, no 
great friend to the Church, attributes 
the revival of Christianity to the in- 
fluence of these two saints. 

8“ As thou heard’st.” See the last 
Canto, v. 33. 


PARADISE 


333 


He sent, who by their deeds and words might join 


Again his scatter’d people. 


In that clime® 


Where springs the pleasant west-wind to unfold 
The fresh leaves, with which Europe sees herself 
New-garmented ; nor from those billows*® far, 
Beyond whose chiding, after weary course, 

The sun doth sometimes™ hide him; safe abides 
The happy Callaroga,’? under guard 

Of the great shield, wherein the lion lies 


Subjected and supreme. 


And there was born 


The loving minion of the Christian faith, 
The hallow’d wrestler, gentle to his own, 


And to his enemies terrible. 


So replete 


His soul with lively virtue, that when first 
Created, even in the mother’s womb," 

It prophesied. When, at the sacred font, 

The spousals were complete ’twixt faith and him, 
Where pledge of mutual safety was exchanged, 
The dame,” who was his surety, in her sleep 
Beheld the wondrous fruit, that was from him 


And from his heirs to issue. 


And that such 


He might be construed, as indeed he was, 

She was inspired to name him of his owner, 
Whose he was wholly; and so call’d him Dominic. 
And I speak of him, as the laborer, 

Whom Christ in his own garden chose to be 


His help-mate. 


Messenger he seetn’d, and friend 


Fast-knit to Christ; and the first love he show’d, 
Was after the first counsel’® that Christ gave. 


® “In that clime.” Spat } 
10 “* Those _ billows.” he Atlantic. 
11 “* Sometimes.” During the summer 


olstice. 

12 “* Callaroga.’”? Between Osma and 
Aranda, in Old Castile designated by 
the royal coat-of-arms. 7 

13 The loving minion of the Chris- 
tian faith.” Dominic was born April _5, 
1170, and died August 6, 1221. His 
birth-place Callaroga; his father and 
mother’s names, Felix and Joanna; his 
mother’s dream; his name of Dominic, 

iven him in consequence of a vision 
fy a noble matron who stood sponsor 
to him, are all told in an anonymous 
life of the saint, said to have been writ- 
ten in the thirteenth century. : 

% “In the mother’s womb.” His 


mother, when pregnant with him, is 
said to have dreamt that she should 
bring forth a white and black dog with 
a lighted torch in his mouth, which 
were signs of the habit to be worn by 
his order, and of his fervent zeal. 

1% “The dame.” His godmother’s 
dream was, that he had one star in his 
forehead and another in the nape of his 
neck, from which he communicated 
light to the east and the west. 

16 ** After the first counsel.” ‘* Jesus 
said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, 
go and sell that thou hast, and give to 
the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 
in heaven; and come and follow me.”— 
Matth. xix. 21. Dominic is said to have 
followed this advice. 


334 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Many a time*’ his nurse, at entering, found 
That he had risen in silence, and was prostrate, 
As who should say, ‘ My errand was for this.’ 
O happy father! Felix*® rightly named. 

O favor’d mother! rightly named Joanna; 

If that do mean, as men interpret it.?® 

Not for the world’s sake, for which now they toil 
Upon Ostiense?® and Taddeo’s”* lore, 

But for the real manna, soon he grew 

Mighty in learning; and did set himself 

To go about the vineyard, that soon turns 

To wan and wither’d, if not tended well: 

And from the see?? (whose bounty to the just 
And needy is gone by, not through its fault, 
But his who fills it basely) he besought, 

No dispensation? for commuted wrong, 

Nor the first vacant fortune,?* nor the tenths 
That to God’s paupers rightly appertain, 

But, ’gainst an erring and degenerate world, 
License to fight, in favor of that seed *° 

From which the twice twelve cions gird thee round. 
Then, with sage doctrine and good-will to help, 
Forth on his great apostleship he fared, 

Like torrent bursting from a lofty vein; 

And, dashing ’gainst the stocks of heresy, 
Smote fiercest, where resistance was most stout. 
Thence many rivulets have since been turn’d, 
Over the garden catholic to lead 

Their living waters, and have fed its plants. 


71°* Many a time.’’ His nurse, when 
she returned to him, often found that 
he had left his bed, and was prostrate, 
and in prayer. 

78 “* Felix.” Felix Gusman. 

91‘* As men interpret it.’”’ Grace or 
gift of the Lord. ; 

20 “* Ostiense.” Arrigo, a_ native of 
Susa, formerly a considerable city in 
Piedmont, and cardinal of Ostia and 
Velletri, whence he acquired the name 
of Ostiense, was celebrated for his lect- 
ures on the five books of the Decre- 
tals. He flourished about the year 1250. 

21“ Taddeo.”’ It is uncertain wheth- 
er he speaks of the physician or the 
lawyer of that name. The former, Tad- 
deo d’ Alderotto, a Florentine, called 
the Hippocratean, translated the ethics 
of Aristotle into Latin; and died at an 
advanced age, toward the end of the 
thirteenth century. The other, who 


was of Bologna and celebrated for his 
legal knowledge, left no writings behind 


im. 

22The see.” The apostolic see, 
which no longer continues its wonted 
liberality toward the indigent and de- 
serving; not indeed through its own 
fault, as its doctrines are still the 
same, but through the fault of the pon- 
tiff, who is seated in it. 

23°* No dispensation.” Dominic did 
not ask for license to compound for the 
use of unjust acquisitions by dedicating 
a part of them to pious purposes. 

%** Nor the first vacant fortune.’ 
Not the first benefice that fell vacant. 

25‘* Tn favor of that seed.” ‘ For 
that seed of the divine Word, from 
which have sprung up these four-and- 
twenty plants, these holy spirits that 
now environ thee.” 


i 


PARADISE 


335 


“Tf such, one wheel*® of that two-yoked car, 
Wherein the holy Church defended her, 
And rode triumphant through the civil broil; 
Thou canst not doubt its fellow’s excellence, 
Which Thomas,?* ere my coming, hath declared 


So courteously unto thee. 


But the track,?§ 


Which its smooth fellies made, is now deserted: 
That, mouldy mother is, where late were lees. 
His family, that wont to trace his path, 

Turn backward, and invert their steps; erelong 
To rue the gathering in of their ill crop, 
When the rejected tares?® in vain shall ask 


Admittance to the barn. 


I question not*° 


But he, who search’d our volume, leaf by leaf, 
Might still find page with this inscription on’t, 


‘I am as I was wont.’ 


Yet such were not 


From Acquasparta nor Casale, whence, 

Of those who come to meddle with the text, 
One stretches and another cramps its rule. 
Buonaventura’s life in me behold, 

From Bagnoregio; one, who, in discharge 
Of my great offices, still laid aside 


All sinister aim. 


Illuminato here, 


And Agostino *! join me: two they were, 

Among the first of those barefooted meek ones, 

We sought God’s friendship in the cord: with them 
Hugues of Saint Victor ;°* Pietro Mangiadore ;** 


86** One wheel.” Dominic; as the 
other wheel is Francis. ; 

27 “* Thomas.’’ Thomas Aquinas. 
_ %“ But the track.”’ ‘‘ But the rule of 
St. Francis is already deserted; and the 
lees of the wine are turned into mouldi- 
ness.”’ 

2% * Tares.”” He adverts to the parable 
of the tares and the wheat. 

80“ [ question not.’ ‘* Some indeed 
might be found, who still observe the 
rule of the order: but such would come 
neither from Casale nor Acquasparta.” 
At Casale, in Monferrat, the discipline 
had been enforced by Uberto with un- 
necessary rigor; and at Acquasparta, in 
the territory of Todi, it had been equal- 
ly relaxed by the Cardinal Matteo, gen- 
eral of the order. | 

a1 “ ____ TlJuminato here, 

And Agostino.” 

Two among the earliest followers of St. 
Francis. : 

82 “ Hugues of Saint Victor.’’ He was 


of the monastery of St. Victor at Paris, 
and died in 114, at the age of forty- 
four. His ten books, illustrative of the 
celestial hierarchy of Dionysius the 
Areopagite, according to the transla- 
tion of Joannes Scotus, are inscribed 
to King Louis, son of Louis le Gros, 
by whom the monastery had _ been 
founded. ‘* A man distinguished by the 
fecundity of his Pare who treated, 
in his writings, of all the branches of 
sacred and profane erudition that were 
known in his time, and who composed 
several dissertations that are not desti- 
tute of merit.’”’—Mosheim, ‘“‘Eccl. Hist.” 
Vv. ili. cent. xii. p. it, c. i1.. § 23. 
83 “* Pietro Mangiadore.” Petrus Com- 
estor, or the Eater, born at Troyes, was 
canor and dean of that church, and. af- 
terward: chancellor of the church of 
Paris. He relinquished these benefices 
to become a regular canon of St. Vice 
tor at Paris, where he died in 1198. 


330 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And he of Spain ** in his twelve volumes shining; 
Nathan the prophet; Metropolitan 

Chrysostom ; ** and Anselmo; ** and, who deign’d 
To put his hand to the first art, Donatus. 

Raban *" is here; and at my side there shines 
Calabria’s abbot, Joachim,®* endow’d 


With soul prophetic. 


The bright courtesy 


Of friar Thomas and his goodly lore, 
Have moved me to the blazon of a peer *° 
So worthy ; and with me have moved this throng.” 


CANTO XIII 


‘ARGUMENT.—Thomas Aquinas resumes his speech. He solves the other 
of those doubts which he discerned in the mind of Dante, and warns 
him earnestly against assenting to any proposition without having 


duly examined it. 


Imagine (and retain the image firm 


| ET him,’ who would conceive what now I saw, 


As mountain rock, the whilst he hears me speak), 
Of stars, fifteen, from midst the ethereal host 
Selected, that, with lively ray serene, 
O’ercome the massiest air: thereto imagine 
The wain, that, in the bosom of our sky, 
Spins ever on its axle night and day, 


84 “* He of Spain.’”’?. To Pope Adrian 
V succeeded John XXI, a native of 
Lisbon; a man of great genius and ex- 
traordinary acquirements, eae ceed in 
logic and in medicine, as his books, 
written in the name of Peter of Spain 
(by which he was known before he be- 
came Pope) may testify. His life was 
not much fed than that of his pred- 
ecessors, for he was killed at Viterbo, 
by the falling in of the roof of his 
chamber, after he had been pontiff only 
eight months and as many days, A.D. 


1277. 

85 “* Chrysostom.” The eloquent Pa- 
triarch of Constantinople. 

86 “* Anselmo.”” Anselm, Archbishop 
of Canterbury, was born at Aosta, about 
1034, and studied under Lanfranc, at the 
monastery of Bec in Normandy, where 
he afterward devoted himself to a relig- 
ious life, in his twenty-seventh year. 
In three years he was made prior, and 
then abbot of that monastery; from 
whence he was taken, in 1093, to suc- 
ceed to the archbishopric, vacant by the 
death of Lanfranc. He enjoyed this 


dignity till his death, in 1109, though 
it was disturbed by_many dissensions 
with William II and Henry I respecting 
immunities and investitures. There is 
much depth and precision in his theo- 
logical works. 

37“ Raban.” Rabanus Maurus, Arch- 
bishop of Mentz, 847, is deservedly 
placed at the head of the Latin writers 
of this age. 

88“ Joachim.” Abbot of Flora in Cal- 
abria; whom the multitude revered as a 
person divinely inspired, and equal to 
the most illustrious prophets of ancient 
times. 

80 “A peer.” St. Dominic. 

1“ Let him.” Whoever would con- 
ceive the sight that now presented itself 
to me, must imagine to himself fifteen 
of the brightest stars in heaven, to- 
gether with seven stars of Arcturus Ma- 
jor and two of Arcturus Minor, ranged 
in two circles, one within the other, 
each resembling the crown of Ariadne, 
ane moving round in opposite direc 
ions. 


PARADISE 


337 


With the bright summit of that horn, which swells 
Due from the pole, round which the first wheel rolls, 
To have ranged themselves in fashion of two signs 
In heaven, such as Ariadne made, 

When death’s chill seized her; and that one of them 
Did compass in the other’s beam; and both 

In such sort whirl around, that each should tend 
With opposite motion: and, conceiving thus, 

Of that true constellation, and the dance 

Twofold, that circled me, he shall attain 

As ’twere the shadow; for things there as much 
Surpass our usage, as the swiftest heaven 


Is swifter than the Chiana.? 


There was sung 


No Bacchus, and no Io Pzan, but 
Three Persons in the Godhead, and in one 
Person that nature and the human join’d. 
The song and round were measured: and to us 
Those saintly lights attended, happier made 
At each new ministering. Then silence brake 
Amid the accordant sons of Deity, 
That luminary,®? in which the wondrous life 
Of the meek man of God * was told to me; 
And thus it spake: “ One ear > 0’ the harvest thresh’d, 
And its grain safely stored, sweet charity 
Invites me with the other to like toil. 
“ Thou know’st, that in the bosom,® whence the rib 
Was ta’en to fashion that fair cheek, whose taste 
All the world pays for; and in that, which pierced 
By the keen lance, both after and before 
Such satisfaction offer’d as outweighs 
Each evil in the scale; whate’er of light 
To human nature is allow’d, must all 
Have by his virtue been infused, who form’d 


2‘ The Chiana.” See ‘ Hell,’’ Canto 
XIX. 45. : 

8 That luminary.”? Thomas Aquinas. 

4‘* The meek man of God.”’ St. Fran- 
cis. See Canto xi. 25. 

5“ One ear.’”’ ‘“‘ Having solved one of 
thy questions, I proceed to answer the 
other. Thou thinkest then that Adam 
and Christ were both endued with all 
the perfection of which the human nat- 
ure is capable; and therefore, wonder- 
est at what has been said concerning 
Solomon.” 


6“*In the bosom.” ‘‘ Thou knowest 
that in the breast of Adam, whence the 
rib was taken to make that fair cheek 
of Eve, which, by tasting the apple, 
brought death into the world; and also 
in the breast of Christ, -.which, being 
ierced by the lance, made satisfaction 
or the sins of the whole world; as 
much wisdom resided, as human nature 
was capable of: and thou dost therefore 
wonder that I should have spoken of 
Solomon as the wisest.’’ See Canto x, 
105. 


338 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Both one and other: and thou thence admirest . 
In that I told thee, of beatitudes, 
A second there is none to him enclosed 


In the fifth radiance. 


Open now thine eyes 


To what I answer thee; and thou shalt see 
Thy deeming and my saying meet in truth, 
As centre in the round. That? which dies not, 
And that which can die, are but each the beam 
Of that idea, which our Sovereign Sire 
Engendereth loving; for that lively light,® 
Which passeth from his splendor, not disjoin’d 
From him, nor from his love triune with them,® 
Doth, through his bounty, congregate itself, 
Mirror’d, as ’twere, in new existences ; ?° 
Itself unalterable, and ever one. 

“ Descending hence unto the lowest powers,” 
Its energy so sinks, at last it makes 
But brief contingencies; for so I name 
Things generated, which the heavenly orbs 
Moving, with seed or without seed, produce. 
Their wax, and that which moulds it,’* differ much: 
And thence with lustre, more or less, it shows 
The ideal stamp imprest: so that one tree, 
According to his kind, hath better fruit, 
And worse: and, at your birth, ye, mortal men, 


Are in your talents various. 


Were the wax 


Moulded with nice exactness, and the heaven 18 
In its disposing influence supreme, 

The brightness of the seal ** should be complete. 
But nature renders it imperfect ever; 
Resembling thus the artist, in his work, 
Whose faltering hand is faithless to his skill. 
Therefore, if fervent love dispose, and mark 


7“ That.” Things, corruptible and 
api Saat rea are only emanations from 
the archetypal idea residing in the Di- 
vine Mind. 

8“ Light.”” The Word; the Son of 


od. 

®“ His love triune with them.” The 
Holy Ghost. 

10 “ New existences.”” Angels and hu- 
man souls. 

i“ The lowest powers.” 
life and brute matter. { 

13“ Their wax, and that which moulds 


Irrational 


it.” Matter, and the virtue or energy 
that acts on it. 

18 ** The heaven.” The influence of the 
planetary bodies. 

14 “* The brightness of the seal.”” The 
brightness of the Divine idea before 
spoken of. : 

15 “* Therefore.” Our Poet intends 
this for a brief description of the Trin- 
ity: the primal virtue signifying the 
Father; the lustrous image, the Son; the 
fervent love the Holy Ghost. 


PARADISE 


339 


The lustrous image of the primal virtue, 

There all perfection is vouchsafed; and such 
The clay #* was made, accomplish’d with each gift, 
That life can teem with; such the burden fill’d 
The virgin’s bosom: so that I commend 

Thy judgment, that the human nature ne’er 

Was, or can be, such as in them it was. 

“ Did I advance no further than this point; 

* How then had he no peer?’ thou might’st reply. 
But, that what now appears not, may appear 
Right plainly, ponder, who he was, and what 
(When he was bidden ‘ Ask’) the motive, sway’d 
To his requesting. I have spoken thus, 

That thou mayst see, he was a king, who ask’d 1” 
For wisdom, to the end he might be king 
Sufficient: not, the number to search out 

Of the celestial movers; or to know, 

If necessary with contingent e’er 

Have made necessity; or whether that 

Be granted, that first motion 7° is; or if, 

Of the mid-circle,’® can by art be made 
Triangle, with its corner blunt or sharp. 

“ Whence, noting that, which I have said, and this, 
Thou kingly prudence and that ken mayst learn, 
At which the dart of my intention aims. 

And, marking clearly, that I told thee, ‘ Risen,’ 
Thou shalt discern it only hath respect 
To kings, of whom are many, and the good 


Are rare. 


With this distinction take my words; 


And they may well consist with that which thou 
Of the first human father dost believe, 

And of our well-beloved. And let this 
Henceforth be lead unto thy feet, to make 

Thee slow in motion, as a weary man, 


16 ** The clay.’”? Adam. 

17** Who ask’d.” He did not desire 
to know the number of the celestial 
intelligences, or to pry into the subtle- 
ties of logical, metaphysical, or mathe- 
matical science: but asked for that wis- 
dom which might fit him for his kingly 


office. 

18“ That first motion.” If we must 
allow one first motion, which is not 
caused by other motion: a question re- 


solved affirmatively by metaphysies, ac- 
cording to that principle, ‘‘ repugnant 
m causis processus infinitum.” 

19 “* Of the mid-circle.”” If in the half 
of the circle a rectilinear triangle can 
be described, one side of which shall be 
the diameter of the same circle, without 
its forming a right angle with the other 
two sides; which geometry shows to be 
impossible. 


340 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Both to the ‘ yea’ and to the ‘ nay’ thou seest not. 
For he among the fools is down full low, 
Whose affirmation, or denial, is | 
Without distinction, in each case alike. 
Since it befalls, that in most instances 
Current opinion leans to false: and then 
Affection bends the judgment to her ply. 
“Much more than vainly doth he lose from shore, 
Since he returns not such as he set forth, 
Who fishes for the truth and wanteth skill. 
And open proofs of this unto the world 
Have been afforded in Parmenides, 
Melissus, Bryso,?° and the crowd beside, 
Who journey’d on, and knew not whither: so did 
Sabellius, Arius,?? and the other fools, 
Who, like to scimitars,?* reflected back 
The scripture-image by distortion marr’d. 
“Let not the people be too swift to judge; 
As one who reckons on the blades in field, 


Or e’er the crop be ripe. 


For I have seen 


The thorn frown rudely all the winter long, 

And after bear the rose upon its top; 

And bark, that all her way across the sea 

Ran straight and speedy, perish at the last 

E’en in the haven’s mouth. Seeing one steal, 
Another bring his offering to the priest, 

Let not 7? Dame Birtha and Sir Martin ** thence 
Into heaven’s counsels deem that they can pry: 
For one of these may rise, the other fall.” 


20 ‘* ____ Parmenides, 
Melissus, Bryso.” 

For the singular opinions entertained 

by the two former of these heathen 

maoeo bers, see Diogenes Laertius, 

ib. ix. 

21** Sabellius, Arius.” Well-known 
heretics. 

22 “* Scimitars.”” Bertradon de la 
Brocquiére, who wrote before Dante, 
informs us that the wandering Arabs 
used their scimitars as mirrors. 


23 “‘ Let not.” ‘‘ Let not short-sighted 
mortals presume to decide on the tard 
doom of any man, from a consideration 
of his present character and actions.” 
This is meant as an answer to the 
doubts entertained respecting the salva- 
tion of Solomon. See Canto x. 107. 

2 “*Dame Birtha and Sir Martin.” 
Names put generally for persons who 
have more curiosity than discretion, 


; PARADISE 341 


CANTO XIV 


ARGUMENT.—Solomon, who is one of the spirits in the inner circle, de- 
clares what the appearance of the blest will be after the resurrection 
of the body. Beatrice and Dante are translated into the fifth 
Heaven, which is that of Mars; and here behold the souls of those, 
who had died fighting for the true faith, ranged in the sign of the 
cross, athwart which the spirits move to the sound of a melodious 
hymn. 


ROM centre to the circle, and so back 
From circle to the centre, water moves 
In the round chalice, even as the blow 

Impels it, inwardly, or from without. 
Such was the image? glanced into my mind, 
As the great spirit of Aquinum ceased ; 
And Beatrice, after him, her words 
Resumed alternate: “ Need there is (though yet 
He tells it to you not in words, nor e’en 
In thought) that he should fathom to its depth 
Another mystery. Tell him, if the light, 
Wherewith your semblance blooms, shall stay with you 
Eternally, as now; and, if it doth, 
How, when ? ye shall regain your visible forms, 
The sight may without harm endure the change, 
That also tell.” As those, who in a ring 
Tread the light measure, in their fitful mirth 
Raise loud the voice, and spring with gladder bound; 
Thus, at the hearing of that pious suit, 
The saintly circles, in their tourneying 
And wondrous note, attested new delight. 

Whoso laments, that we must doff this garb 
Of frail mortality, thenceforth to live 
Immortally above; he hath not seen 
The sweet refreshing of that heavenly shower.® 

Him, who lives ever, and forever reigns 
In mystic union of the Three in One, 
Unbounded, bounding all, each spirit thrice 


1 “Such was the image.’”’ The voice clothed with your bodies at the resur- 
of Thomas Aquinas proceeding from the rection. 
circle to the centre; and that of Bea- 8 “That heavenly shower.” That ef- 
trice, from the centre to the circle. | fusion of beatific light. 

3° When.’”? When ye shall be again 


oe THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Sang, with such melody, as, but to hear, 

For highest merit were an ample meed. 

And from the lesser orb the goodliest light,* 
With gentle voice and mild, such as perhaps 

The angel’s once to Mary, thus replied: 

“Long as the joy of Paradise shall last, 

Our love shall shine around that raiment, bright 
As fervent; fervent as, in vision, blest; 

And that as far, in blessedness, exceeding, 

As it hath grace, beyond its virtue, great. 

Our shape, regarmented with glorious weeds 

Of saintly flesh, must, being thus entire, 

Show yet more gracious. Therefore shall increase 
Whate’er, of light, gratuitous imparts 

The Supreme Good; light, ministering aid, 

The better to disclose his glory: whence, 

The vision needs increasing, must increase 

The fervor, which it kindles; and that too 

The ray, that comes from it. But as the gleed 
Which gives out flame, yet in its whiteness shines 
More livelily than that, and so preserves 

Its proper semblance; thus this circling sphere 
Of splendor shall to view less radiant seem, 
Than shall our fleshly robe, which yonder earth 
Now covers. Nor will such excess of light 
O’erpower us, in corporeal organs made 

Firm, and susceptible of all delight.” 

So ready and so cordial an “ Amen” 
Follow’d from either choir, as plainly spoke 
Desire of their dead bodies; yet perchance 
Not for themselves, but for their kindred dear, 
Mothers and sires, and those whom best they loved, 
Ere they were made imperishable flame. 

And lo! forthwith there rose up round about 
A lustre, over that already there; 

Of equal clearness, like the brightening up 

Of the horizon. As at evening hour 

Of twilight, new appearances through heaven 
Peer with faint glimmer, doubtfully descried; 


4“ The goodliest light.” Solomon. 


PARADISE 343 


So, there, new substances, methought, began 
To rise in view beyond the other twain, 
And wheeling, sweep their ampler circuit wide. 
O genuine glitter of eternal Beam! 
With what a sudden whiteness did it flow, 
O’erpowering visionin me. But so fair, 
So passing lovely, Beatrice show’d, 
Mind cannot follow it, nor words express 
Her infinite sweetness. Thence mine eyes regain’d 
Power to look up; and I beheld myself, 
Sole with my lady, to more lofty bliss ° 
Translated: for the star, with warmer smile 
Impurpled, well denoted our ascent. 
With all the heart, and with that tongue which speaks 
The same in all, a holocaust I made 
To God befitting the new grace vouchsafed. 
And from my bosom had not yet upsteam’d 
The fuming of that incense, when I knew 
The rite accepted. With such mighty sheen 
And mantling crimson, in two listed rays 
The splendors shot before me, that I cried, 
“ God of Sabaoth! that dost prank them thus!” 
As leads the galaxy from pole to pole, 
Distinguish’d into greater lights and less, 
Its pathway, which the wisest fail to spell; 
So thickly studded, in the depth of Mars, 
Those rays described the venerable sign, 
That quadrants in the round conjoining frame. 
Here memory mocks the toil of genius. Christ 
Beam’d on that cross; and pattern fails me now. 
But whoso takes his cross, and follows Christ, 
Will pardon me for that I leave untold, 
When in the flecker’d dawning he shall spy 
The glitterance of Christ. From horn to horn, 
And ’tween the summit and the base, did move 
Lights, scintillating, as they met and pass’d. 
Thus oft are seen with ever-changeful glance, 
Straight or athwart, now rapid and now slow, 
The atomies of bodies, long or short, 
_6“To more lofty bliss.’ To the planet Mars, 


344 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


To move along the sunbeam, whose slant line 

Checkers the shadow interposed by art 

Against the noontide heat. And as the chime 

Of minstrel music, dulcimer, and harp 

With many strings, a pleasant dinning makes 

To him, who heareth not distinct the note; 

So from the lights, which there appear’d to me, 

Gather’d along the cross a melody, 

That, indistinctly heard, with ravishment 

Possess’d me. Yet I mark’d it was a hymn 

Of lofty praises; for there came to me 

“ Arise,” and “ Conquer,” as to one who hears 

And comprehends not. Me such ecstasy 

O’ercame, that never, till that hour, was thing 

That held me in so sweet imprisonment. 
Perhaps my saying overbold appears, 

Accounting less the pleasure of those eyes, 

Whereon to look fulfilleth all desire. 

But he, who is aware those living seals 

Of every beauty work with quicker force, 

The higher they are risen; and that there 

I had not turn’d me to them; he may well 

Excuse me that, whereof in my excuse 

I do accuse me, and may own my truth; 

That holy pleasure here not yet reveal’d, 

Which grows in transport as we mount aloft, 


CANTO XV 


ARGUMENT.—The spirit of Cacciaguida, our Poet’s ancestor, glides 
rapidly to the foot of the cross; tells who he is; and speaks of the 
simplicity of the Florentines in his days, since then much corrupted. 


RUE love, that ever shows itself as clear 
In kindness, as loose appetite in wrong, 
Silenced that lyre harmonious, and still’d 
The sacred chords, that are by Heaven’s right hand 
Unwound and tighten’d. How to righteous prayers 
Should they not hearken, who, to give me will 
For praying, in accordance thus were mute? 


PARADISE 345 


He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief, 
Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not, — 
Despoils himself forever of that love. 

As oft along the still and pure serene, 
At nightfall, glides a sudden trail of fire, 
Attracting with mvoluntary heed 
The eye to follow it, erewhile at rest; 
And seems some star that shifted place in heaven, 
Only that, whence it kindles, none is lost, 
And it is soon extinct: thus from the horn, 
That on the dexter of the cross extends, 
Down to its foot, one luminary ran 
From mid the cluster shone there; yet no gem 
Dropp’d from its foil: and through the beamy list, 
Like flame in alabaster, glow’d its course. 
So forward stretch’d him (if of credence aught 
Our greater muse may claim) the pious ghost 
Of old Anchises, in the Elysian bower, 
When he perceived his son. “O thou, my blood! 
O most exceeding grace divine! to whom, 
As now to thee, hath twice the heavenly gate 
Been e’er unclosed?”’ So spake the light: whence I 
Turn’d me toward him; then unto my dame 
My sight directed: and on either side 
Amazement waited me; for in her eyes 
Was lighted such a smile, I thought that mine 
Had dived unto the bottom of my grace 
And of my bliss in Paradise. Forthwith, 
To hearing and to sight grateful alike, 
The spirit to his proem added things 
I understood not, so profound he spake: 
Yet not of choice, but through necessity, 
Mysterious; for his high conception soar’d 
Beyond the mark of mortals. When the flight 
Of holy transport had so spent its rage, 
That nearer to the level of our thought 
The speech descended; the first sounds I heard 
Were, “ Blest be thou, Triunal Deity! 
That hast such favor in my seed vouchsafed.”’ 
Then follow’d: “ No unpleasant thirst, though long, 


346 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Which took me reading in the sacred book, 
Whose leaves or white or dusky never change, 
Thou hast allay’d, my son! within this light, 
From whence my voice thou hear’st: more thanks to her 
Who, for such lofty mounting, has with plumes 
Begirt thee. Thou dost deem thy thoughts to me 
From Him transmitted, who is first of all, 
E’en as all numbers ray from unity ; 
And therefore dost not ask me who I am, 
Or why to thee more joyous I appear, 
Than any other in this gladsome throng. 
The truth is as thou deem’st; for in this life 
Both less and greater in that mirror look, 
In which thy thoughts, or e’er thou think’st, are shown. 
But, that the love, which keeps me wakeful ever, 
Urging with sacred thirst of sweet desire, 
May be contented fully; let thy voice, 
Fearless, and frank, and jocund, utter forth 
Thy will distinctly, utter forth the wish, 
Whereto my ready answer stands decreed.” 
I turn’d me to Beatrice; and she heard 
Ere I had spoken, smiling an assent, 
That to my will gave wings; and I began: 
“To each among your tribe, what time ye kenn’d 
The nature, in whom naught unequal dwells, 
Wisdom and love were in one measure dealt; 
For that they are so equal in the sun, 
From whence ye drew your radiance and your heat, 
As makes all likeness scant. But will and means, 
In mortals, for the cause ye well discern, 
With unlike wings are fledge. A mortal, I 
Experience inequality like this; 
And therefore give no thanks, but in the heart, 
For thy paternal greeting. This howe’er 
I pray thee, living topaz! that ingemm’st 
This precious jewel; let me hear thy name.” 
“Tam thy root,’ O leaf! whom to expect 
Even, hath pleased me.”” Thus the prompt reply 


1“JT am thy root.’ Cacciaguida, father to Alighieri, of whom our Poet 
avas the great-grandson. . 


PARADISE 


Prefacing, next it added: 


347 


“ He, of whom ? 


Thy kindred appellation comes, and who, 
These hundred years and more, on its first ledge 
Hath circuited the mountain, was my son, 


And thy great-grandsire. 


Well befits, his long 


Endurance should be shorten’d by thy deeds. 

“ Florence, within her ancient limit-mark, 
Which calls her still* to matin prayers and noon, 
Was chaste and sober, and abode in peace. 

She had no armlets and no head-tires then; 

No purfled dames; no zone, that caught the eye 
More than the person did. Time was not yet, 
When * at his daughter’s birth the sire grew pale, 
For fear the age and dowry should exceed, 


On each side, just proportion. 


House was none 


Void® of its family: nor yet had come 
Sardanapalus,® to exhibit feats 


Of chamber prowess. 


Montemalo? yet 


O’er our suburban turret ® rose; as much 
To be surpassed in fall, as in its rising. 
I saw Bellincion Berti ® walk abroad 


2‘ He, of whom.” Thy great-grand- 
father, Alighieri, has been in the first 
round of Purgatory more than a hun- 
dred years; and it is fit that thou by 
thy good deserts shouldst endeavor to 
shorten the time of his remaining there. 
His son Bellincione was living in 1266; 
and of him was born the father of our 
Poet, whom Benvenuto da Imola calls 
a lawyer by profession. t 

in Which calls her still.””, The public 
clock being still within the circuit of 
the ancient walls. 

“When.” When the women were 
not married at too early an age, and did 
not expect too large a portion. | 

6 “ Void.” Through the civil wars 
and banishments. r he may mean 
that houses were not formerly built 
merely for pomp and show, nor of 
greater size than was necessary for con- 
taining the families that inhabited them. 


For it has been understood in both 
these ways. ; 
6 ‘“* Sardanapalus.”’ The luxurious 


monarch of Assyria. 

7 ‘* Montemalo.” Either an elevated 
spot between Rome and Viterbo; or 
Monte Mario, the site of the villa Mel- 
lini, commanding a view of Rome. 

8“ Our suburban turret.”’ Uccel- 
latojo, near Florence, from whence that 
city was discovered. Florence had not 

et vied with Rome in the grandeur of 
her public buildings. 

®“ Bellincion Berti.” ‘ Hell,’ Canto 
xvi. 38, and notes. There is a curious 


description of the simple manner in 
which the earlier Florentines dressed 
themselves, in G. Villani, lib. vi. c. xxi, 
“‘ And observe that in the time of the 
said people (A.D. 1259), and before and 
for a long time after, the citizens of 
Florence lived soberly, on coarse viands, 
and at little cost, and in many customs 
and courtesies of life were rude and 
unpolished; and dressed themselves and 
their women in coarse cloths: many 
wore plain leather, without cloth over 
it; bonnets on their heads; and all, boots 
on the feet; and the Florentine women 
were without ornament; the better sort 
content with a close gown of scarlet 
cloth of Ypres or of camlet, bound with 
a girdle in the ancient mode, and a 
mantle lined with fur, and a hood to it, 
which was worn on the head; the com- 
mon sort of women were clad in a 
coarse gown of Cambrai in like manner. 
One hundred pounds (libbre) was the 
common portion for a wife; and two or 
three hundred was accounted a mag- 
nificent one; and the young women 
were for the most part twenty years old 
or more before they were given in mar- 
riage. Such was the dress; and thus 
coarse were the manners of the Flor- 
entines; but they were of good faith 
and loyal both among themselves and 
to the State; and with their coarse way 
of living and poverty did greater and 
more virtuous deeds than have been 
done in our times with greater refine- 
ment and wealth.” 


348 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


In leathern girdle, and a clasp of bone; 
And, with no artful coloring on her cheeks, 


His lady leave the glass. 


The sons I saw 


Of Nerli, and of Vecchio,?® well content 
With unrobed jerkin; and their good dames handling 


The spindle and the flax: 


O happy they! 


Each ** sure of burial in her native land, 
And none left desolate a-bed for France. 
One waked to tend the cradle, hushing it 
With sounds that lull’d the parent’s infancy : 
Another, with her maidens, drawing off 
The tresses from the distaff, lectured them 
Old tales of Troy, and Fesole, and Rome. 
A Salterello and Cianghella ** we 
Had held as strange a marvel, as ye would 
A Cincinnatus or Cornelia now. 

“In such composed and seemly fellowship, 
Such faithful and such fair equality, 
In so sweet household, Mary ** at my birth 
Bestow’d me, call’d on with loud cries; and there, 
In your old baptistery, I was made 
Christian at once and Cacciaguida; as were 
My brethren Eliseo and Moronto. 

“From Valdipado '® came to me my spouse; 


And hence thy surname grew. 


I follow’d then 


The Emperor Conrad:'* and his knighthood he 
Did gird on me; in such good part he took 


My valiant service. 


After him I went 


To testify against that evil law, 

Whose people,** by the shepherd’s fault, possess 
Your right usurp’d. There I by that foul crew 
Was disentangled from the treacherous world 


40 “ Of Nerli and of Vecchio.” Two 
of the most opulent families in Flor- 


ence. 
11 “* Fach.” None fearful either of 
dying in banishment or of being desert- 
ed by her husband on a scheme of 
traffic in France. . 
12 “* A Salterello and Cianghella.” The 
latter a shameless woman of the family 
of Tosa, married to Lito degli Alidosi 
of Imola: the former Lapo Salterello, 
a lawyer, with whom Dante was at va- 
riance. ‘‘ We should have held an 
abandoned character, like these, as a 


great wonder, as ye would the contrary 


_ 18 “Mary.” The Virgin was invoked 
in the pains of child-birth. “ Purga- 
tory,” Canto xx. 21. 

18 “ Valdipado.”’ Cacciaguida’s wife, 
whose family name was Alighieri, came 
from Ferrara, called Val di Pado, from 
its bein& watered by the Po. 

16 ** Conrad.”” The Emperor Conrad 
IT¥, who died in 1152. 

17“* Whose people.” The Mohamme- 
dans, who were left in the possession of 
the Holy Land, through the supineness 
of the Pope. See Canto ix, 123. 


PARADISE 


Whose base affection many a spirit soils; 
And from the martyrdom came to this peace.” 


CANTO XVI 


349 


ARGUMENT.—Cacciaguida relates the time of his birth; and, describing 
the extent of Florence when he lived there, recounts the names of 
the chief families who then inhabited it. Its degeneracy, and subse- 
quent disgrace, he attributes to the introduction of families from 
the neighboring country and villages, and to their mixture with the 


primitive citizens. 


SLIGHT respect of man’s nobility! 
I never shall account it marvellous, 
That our infirm affection here below 
Thou movest to boasting; when I could not chuse, 
E’en in that region of unwarp’d desire, 
In heaven itself, but make my vaunt in thee. 
Yet cloak thou art soon shorten’d; for that Time, 
Unless thou be eked out from day to day, 
Goes round thee with his shears. Resuming then, 
With greeting 1 such as Rome was first to bear, 
But since hath disaccustom’d, I began: 
_ And Beatrice, that a little space 
Was sevr’d, smiled; reminding me of her, 
Whose cough embolden’d (as the story holds) 
To first offence the doubting Guenever.? 
“ You are my sire,” said I: “ you give me heart 
Freely to speak my thought: above myself 
You raise me. Through so many streams with joy 
My soul is fill’d, that gladness wells from it; 
So that it bears the mighty tide, and bursts not. 
Say then, my honor’d stem! what ancestors 


Were those who sprang from, and what years were mark’d 


In your first childhood? Tell me of the fold,’ 
That hath Saint John for guardian, what was then 
Its state, and who in it were highest seated! ” 


1“ With greeting.” The Poet, who #"* Guenever.” Beatrice’s smile re- 
had addressed the spirit, not knowing minded him of the female servant_who, 
him to be his ancestor, with a plain by her coughing, emboldened Queen 
** Thou,” now uses more ceremony, and Guenever to admit the freedoms of 
calls him ‘* You,” according to a cus- Lancelot. See ‘‘ Hell,”’ Canto v. 124. 
tom introduced among the Romans in 8 ‘The fold.” Florence, of which 


the latter times of the empire. 
Classies. Vol. 34—P 


John the Baptist was the patron saint. 


35° 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


As embers, at the breathing of the wind, 
Their flame enliven; so that light 1 saw 
Shine at my blandishments; and, as it grew 
More fair to look on, so with voice more sweet, 
Yet not in this our modern phrase, forthwith 


It answer’d: 


“From the day,* when it was said 


‘Hail Virgin!’ to the throes by which my mother, 
Who now is sainted, lighten’d her of me 

Whom she was heavy with, this fire had come 
Five hundred times and fourscore, to relume 

Its radiance underneath the burning foot 


Of its own lion. 


They, of whom I sprang, 


And I, had there our birth-place, where the last ® 
Partition of our city first is reach’d 


By him that runs her annual game. 


Thus much 


Suffice of my forefathers: who they were, 
And whence they hither came, more honorable 
It is to pass in silence than to tell. 

All those who at that time were there, betwixt 
Mars and the Baptist, fit to carry arms, 

Were but the fifth, of them this day alive. 

But then the citizen’s blood, that now is mix’d 
From Campi and Certaldo and Fighine,® 

Ran purely through the last mechanic’s veins. 

O how much better were it, that these people? 
Were neighbors to you; and that at Galluzzo 
And at Trespiano ye should have your boundary ; 
Than to have them within, and bear the stench 
Of Aguglione’s hind, and Signa’s,® him, 

That hath his eye already keen for bartering. 
Had not the people,® which of all the world 


4‘ From the day.’”” From the incar- 
nation of our Lord to the birth of Cac- 
ciaguida, the planet Mars had returned 
580 times to the constellation of Leo, 
with which it is supposed to have a 
congenial influence. As Mars then 
completes his revolution in a period of 
forty-three days short of two years, 
bree ty was born about 1090. 

5 “* The last.” The city was divided 
into four compartments. The Elsei, the 
ancestors of Dante, resided near the 
entrance of that, named from the Porta 

Piero, which was the last reached by 
the competitor in the annual race at 
Florence, 


6 ** Campi and Certaldo and Fighine.” 
Country places near Florence.  - 

7“ That these people.” That the ine 
habitants of the above-mentioned places 
had not been mixed with the citizens; 
nor the limits of Florence extended be- 
yond Galluzzo and Trespiano. 

® “ Aguglione’s hind, and Signa’s.” 
Baldo of Aguglione, and Bonifazio of 


igna. , 
® “Had not the Denoles, If Rome 
had continued in her allegiance to the 
Emperor, and the Guelfi-Ghibelline fac- 
tions had thus been prevented; Florence 
would not have been polluted by a race 
of upstarts, nor lost the most respecte 
able of her ancient families. 


PARADISE 35! 


Degenerates most, been stepdame unto Cesar, 
But, as a mother to her son been kind, 

Such one, as hath become a Florentine, 

And trades and traffics, had been turn’d adrift 
To Simifonte,?° where his grandsire plied 
The begar’s craft: the Conti were possessed 
Of Montemurlo™ still: the Cerchi still 

Were in Acone’s parish: nor had haply 
From Valdigreve passed the Buondelmonti. 
The city’s malady hath ever source 

In the confusion of its persons, as 

The body’s, in variety of food: 

And the blind bull falls with a steeper plunge, 
Than the blind lamb: and oftentimes one sword 
Doth more and better execution, 

Than five. Mark Luni; Urbisaglia?* mark; 
How they are gone; and after them how go 
Chiusi and Sinigaglia: 1° and ’twill seem 

No longer new, or strange to thee, to hear 
That families fail, when cities have their end. 
All things that appertain to ye, like yourselves, 
Are mortal: but mortality in some 

Ye mark not; they endure so long, and you 
Pass by so suddenly. And as the moon 

Doth, by the rolling of her heavenly sphere, 
Hide and reveal the strand unceasingly ; 

So fortune deals with Florence. Hence admire not 
At what of them I tell thee, whose renown 
Time covers, the first Florentines. I saw 
The Ughi, Catilini, and Filippi, 

The Alberichi, Greci, and Ormanni, 

Now in their wane, illustrious citizens; 

And great as ancient, of Sannella him, 

With him of Arca saw, and Soldanieri, 

And Ardinghi, and Bostichi. At the poop ** 


10 “* Simifonte.”” A castle dismantled merly of importance, but then fallen to 


by the Florentines. The person here decay. 

alluded to is no longer known. ee 18“ Chiusi and Sinigaglia.” The 
11 “ Montemurlo.”” The Conti Guidi, same. ; 

not being able to defend their castle 4 ‘* At the poop.” The Cerchi, 

from the Pistoians, sold it to the State Dante’s enemies, had succeeded to the 

of Florence. houses over the gate of St. Peter, for- 


uni; Urbisaglia.’”? Cities for- merly inhabited by the Ravignani and 
the Count Guido. 


352 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That now is laden with new felony 

So cumbrous it may speedily sink the bark, 

The Ravignani sat, of whom is sprung 

The County Guido, and whoso hath since 

His title from the famed Bellincion ta’en. 

Fair governance was yet an art well prized 

By him of Pressa: Galigaio show’d 

The gilded hilt and pommel, in his house: 

The column, clothed with verrey,** still was seen 
Unshaken ; the Sachetti still were great, 
Giouchi, Sifanti, Galli, and Barucci, 

With them *? who blush to hear the bushel named, 
Of the Calfucci still the branchy trunk 

Was in its strength: and, to the curule chairs, 

Sizii and Arrigucci 1® yet were drawn. 

How mighty them ?® I saw, whom, since, their pride 


Hath undone! 


And in all their goodly deeds 


Florence was, by the bullets of bright gold,° 
O’erflourish’d. Such the sires of those,” who now, 
As surely as your church is vacant, flock 

Into her consistory, and at leisure 

There stall them and grow fat. The o’erweening brood,?? 
That plays the dragon after him that flees, 

But unto such as turn and show the tooth, 

Ay or the purse, is gentle as a lamb, 

Was on its rise, but yet so slight esteem’d, 

That Ubertino of Donati grudged 

His father-in-law should yoke him to its tribe. 
Already Caponsacco ** had descended 

Into the mart from Fesole: and Giuda 


1%“ The gilded hilt and pommel.” 
The symbols of knighthood. 

16 ** The column, clothed with verrey.” 
The arms of the Pigli, or, as some write 
it, the Billi. 

17“ With them.” Ejither the Chiara- 
montesi, or the Tosinghi; one of which 
had committed a fraud in measuring 
out the wheat from the public granary. 
See “‘ Purgatory,’’ Canto xii. 99 

18 “‘ Sizii_ and Arrigucci.” ‘“ These 
families still obtained the magistracies.” 

19 “© Them.”? The Uberti. 

20“ The bullets of bright gold.” The 
arms of the Abbati, as it is conjectured; 
or of the Lamberti, according to the 
authorities referred to in the last note. 

1 “The sires of those.”” Of the Vis- 


domini, the Tosinghi, and the Corti- 

iani, who, being sprung from the 
ounders of the bishopric of Florence, 
are the curators of its revenues, which 
they do not spare, whenever it becomes 
vacant. 

22 “The o’erweening brood.” The 
Adimari. This family was so little es- 
teemed, that Ubertino Donato, who had 
married a daughter of Bellincion Berti, 
himself indeed derived from the same 
stock, was offended with his father-in- 
law, for giving another of his daughters 
in marriage to one of them. 

23 “ Caponsacco.”” The family of Ca- 
ponsacchi, who_had removed from Fe- 
sole, lived at Florence in the Mercato 
Vecchio. 


PARADISE 


353 


And Infangato 74 were good citizens. 

A thing incredible I tell, though true: 

The gateway, named from those of Pera, led 
Into the narrow circuit of your walls. 

Each one, who bears the sightly quarterings 

Of the great Baron,?® (he whose name and worth 
The festival of Thomas still revives), 

His knighthood and his privilege retain’d ; 
Albeit one,?® who borders them with gold, 
This day is mingled with the common herd. 
In Borgo yet the Gualterotti dwelt, 

And Importuni:?7 well for its repose, 

Had it still lack’d of newer neighborhood.”® 
The house,” from whence your tears have had their spring, 
Through the just anger, that hath murder’d ye 
And put a period to your gladsome days, 

Was honor’d; it, and those consorted with it. 
O Buondelmonti! what ill counselling 
Prevail’d on thee to break the plighted bond? 
Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice, 
Had God to Ema *° given thee, the first time 


Thou near our city camest. 


But so was doom’d: 


Florence! on that maim’d stone ** which guards the bridge, 


The victim, when thy peace departed, fell. 


* 


“With these and others like to them, I saw 
Florence in such assured tranquillity, 


ia 4 Guida 
And Infangato.”’ ‘ 
Giuda Guidi and the family of Infangati. 
25 “* The great Baron.’? The Marchese 
Ugo, who resided at Florence as lieu- 
tenant of the Emperor Otho III, gave 
many of the chief families license to 
bear his arms. A vision is related, in 
consequence of which he sold all his 
possessions in Germany, and founded 
seven abbeys, in one whereof his mem- 
ory was celebrated at Florence on St. 
Thomas’s day. The marquis, when 
hunting, strayed away from his people, 
and wandering through a forest, came 
to a smithy, where he saw black and 
deformed men tormenting others with 
fire and hammers; and, asking the 
meaning of this, he was told that they 
were condemned souls, who suffered this 
pemenment, and that the soul of the 
arquis Ugo was doomed to suffer the 
same if he did not repent. Struck with 
horror, he commended himself to the 


Virgin Mary; and soon after founded 
the seven religious houses. 

ete OneN. iano della Bella, belong: 
ing to one of the families thus dis- 
tinguished, who no longer retained his 
place among the nobility, and had yet 
added to his arm a bordure or. 

37 a Gualterotti dwelt, 

And Importuni.”’ 
Two families in the compartment of 
the city called Borgo. 5 

28 “* Newer neighborhood.” Some un- 
derstand this of the Bardi; and others, 
of the Buondelmonti. 

29** The house.”? Of Amidei. 

30 “To Ema.” It had been well for 
the city if thy ancestor had been 
drowned in the Ema, when he crossed 
that stream on his way from Monte- 
buono to Florence. 

81 “ On the maim’d stone.” Near the 
remains of the statue of Mars, Buondel- 
monti was slain, as if he had been a 
victim to the god; and Florence had 
not since known the blessing of peace. 


354 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


She had no cause at which to grieve: with these 
Saw her so glorious and so just, that ne’er 

The lily ** from the lance had hung reverse, 

Or through division been with vermeil dyed.” 


CANTO XVII 


ARGUMENT.—Cacciaguida predicts to our Poet his exile and the calami- 
ties he had to suffer; and, lastly, exhorts him to write the present 
poem. 


UCH as the youth,’ who came to Clymene, 

S To certify himself of that reproach 
Which had been fasten’d on him (he whose end 
Still makes the fathers chary to their sons), 
FE’en such was I; nor unobserved was such 
Of Beatrice, and that saintly lamp,? 
Who had erewhile for me his station moved; 
When thus my lady: “ Give thy wish free vent, 
That it may issue, bearing true report 
Of the mind’s impress: not that aught thy words 
May to our knowledge add, but to the end 
That thou mayst use thyself to own thy thirst,® 
And men may mingle for thee when they hear.” 
“© plant, from whence I spring! revered and loved! 

Who soar’st so high a pitch, that thou as clear,* 
As earthly thought determines two obtuse 
In cae triangle not contain’d, so clear 
Dost see contingencies, ere in themselves 
Existent, looking at the point ° whereto 
All times are present; I, the whilst I scaled 
With Virgil the soul-purifying mount 
And visited the nether world of woe, 


832 The lily.” The arms of Florence 8 “To own thy thirst.” ‘* That thou 
had never hung reversed on the spear mayst obtain from others a solution of 
of her enemies, in token of her defeat; any doubt that may occur to thee.” 
nor been changed from argent to gules; 4“ That thou as clear.” ‘* Thou be- 
as they afterward were, when the Guelfi holdest future events with the same 
gained the predominance. clearness of evidence that we discern 


1“ The youth.” Phaéton, who came the simplest mathematical demonstra- 
to his mother Clymene, to inquire of tions.” i aid 
her if he were indeed the son of Apollo. 5 “ The point.” The divine nature. 
8“ That saintly lamp.” Cacciaguida. , 


PARADISE 


355 


Touching my future destiny have heard 
Words grievous, though I feel me on all sides 


Well squared to fortune’s blows. 


Therefore my will 


Were satisfied to know the lot awaits me. 

The arrow, seen beforehand, slacks his flight.” 
So said I to the brightness, which erewhile 

To me had spoken; and my will declared, 


As Beatrice will’d, explicitly. 


Nor with oracular response obscure, 

Such as, or e’er the Lamb of God was slain, 
Beguiled the credulous nations: but, in terms 
Precise, and unambiguous lore, replied 

The spirit of paternal love, enshrined, 

Yet in his smile apparent; and thus spake: 

“ Contingency,® whose verge extendeth not 
Beyond the tablet of your mortal mould, 

Is all depictured in the eternal sight ; 

But hence deriveth not necessity,’ 

More than the tall ship, hurried down the flood, 
Is driven by the eye that looks on it. 

From thence,? as to the ear sweet harmony 
From organ comes, so comes before mine eye 


The time prepared for thee. 


Such as driven out 


From Athens, by his cruel step-dame’s ® wiles, 
Hippolytus departed; such must thou 


Depart from Florence. 


This they wish, and this 


Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there,’° 
Where gainful merchandise is made of Christ 
Throughout the live-long day. The common cry,™ 
Wiill, as ’tis ever wont, affix the blame 

Unto the party injured: but the truth 

Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find 


A faithful witness. 


Thou shalt leave each thing 


Beloved most dearly: this is the first shaft 


® ** Contingency.”? Contingency, which 
has no place beyond the limits of the 
material world. Y 

7 “ Necessity.”” The evidence with 
which we see casual events portrayed 
in the source of all truth, no more ne- 
cessitates those events, than does the 
image, reflected in the sight by a ship 
sailing down a stream, necessitate the 
motion of the vessel. 


8 “ From thence.” From the eternal 

sight; the view of the Deity himself. 
‘His cruel step-dame.” Phedra. 

10 “ There.’?’ At Rome, where the ex- 
pulsion of Dante’s party from Florence 
was then plotting, in 1300. 

11 The common cry.” The multi- 
tude will, as usual, be ready to blame 
those who are sufferers, whose cause 
will at last be vindicated by the over- 
throw of their enemies. 


356 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Shot from the bow of exile. 


Thou shalt prove 


How salt the savor is of other’s bread; 
How hard the passage, to descend and climb 


By other’s stairs. 


But that shall gall thee most, 


Will be the worthless and vile company, 

With whom thou must be thrown into these straits. 

For all ungrateful, impious all, and mad, 

Shall turn ’gainst thee: but in a little while, 

Theirs,?? and not thine, shall be the crimson’d brow, 

Their course shall so evince their brutishness, 

To have ta’en thy stand apart shall well become thee. 
“First refuge thou must find, first place of rest, 

In the great Lombard’s ** courtesy, who bears, 

Upon the ladder perch’d, the sacred bird. 

He shall behold thee with such kind regard, 

The ’twixt ye two, the contrary to that 

Which ’falls ’twixt other men, the granting shall 

Forerun the asking. With him shalt thou see 

That mortal,4* who was at his birth impressed 

So strongly from this star, that of his deeds 


The nations shall take note. 


His unripe age 


Yet holds him from observance; for these wheels 
Only nine years have compassed him about. 
But, ere the Gascon ** practise on great Harry,?® 
Sparkles of virtue shall shoot forth in him, 

In equal scorn of labors and of gold. 

His bounty shall be spread abroad so widely, 

As not to let the tongues, e’en of his foes, 


Be idle in its praise. 


Look thou to him, 


And his beneficence: for he shall cause 
Reversal of their lot to many people; 

Rich men and beggars interchanging fortunes. 
And thou shalt bear this written in thy soul, 
Of him, but tell it not:” and things he told 
Incredible to those who witness them; 


12 “ Theirs.’’ They shall be ashamed 
of the part they have taken against 


thee. 

18 “The great Lombard.” Either 
Bartolommeo della Scala or Alboino 
his brother, although our Poet has 
spoken ambiguously of him in his 
* Convito,” p. 179. Their coat-of-arms 
was a ladder and an eagle. 


14 ** That mortal.”? Can Grande della 
Scala, born under the influence of Mars, 
but at this time only nine years old. 
He was, as the other two, a son of 
Alberto della Scala. 

¥ hy ae See ed) Peeper er uneat V. 

“* Great arry. e mperor 
Henry VII. > 


his satirical vein. 


PARADISE 


Then added: “So interpret thou, my son, 
What hath been told thee—Lo! the ambushment 
That a few circling seasons hide for thee. 

Yet envy not thy neighbors: time extends 

Thy span beyond their treason’s chastisement.” 

Soon as the saintly spirit, by silence, mark’d 
Completion of that web, which I had stretch’d 
Before it, warp’d for weaving; I began, 

As one, who in perplexity desires 

Counsel of other, wise, benign, and friendly: 

“My father! well I mark how time spurs on 
Toward me, ready to inflict the blow, 

Which falls most heavily on him who most 
Abandoneth himself. Therefore ’tis good 

I should forecast, that, driven from the place 17 
Most dear to me, I may not lose myself #8 

All other by my song. Down through the world 
Of infinite mourning; and along the mount, 

From whose fair height my lady’s eyes did lift me; 
And, after, through this Heaven, from light to light: 
Have I learnt that, which if I tell again, 

It may with many wofully disrelish: 

And, if I am a timid friend to truth, 

I fear my life may perish among those, 

To whom these days shall be of ancient date.” 

The brightness, where enclosed the treasure 1° smiled, 
Which I had found there, first shone glisteringly, 
Like to a golden mirror in the sun; 

Next answer’d: “Conscience, dimm’d or by its own 
Or other’s shame, will feel thy saying sharp. 

Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit removed, 

See the whole vision be made manifest. 

And let them wince, who have their withers wrung. 
What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove 
Unwelcome: on digestion, it will turn 

To vital nourishment, The cry thou raisest 


357 


17 “* The place.”? Our Poet here dis- 18 “*T may not lose myself.”” That 


covers both that Florence, much as he being driven out of my country, I 
inveighs against it, was still the dearest ‘ 
object of his affections, and that it was by the boldness with which I expose 


may 


not deprive myself of every other place 


not without some scruple he indulge in my writings the vices of mankind. 


The treasure.”? Cacciaguida. 


358 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Shall, as the wind doth, smite the proudest summits ; 
Which is of honor no light argument. 

For this, there only have been shown to thee, 
Throughout these orbs, the mountain, and the deep, 
Spirits, whom fame hath note of. For the mind 

Of him who hears, is loth to acquiesce 

And fix its faith, unless the instance brought 

Be palpable, and proof apparent urge.”’ 


CANTO XVIII 


ARGUMENT.—Dante sees the souls of many renowned warriors and crt- 
saders in the planet Mars; and then ascends with Beatrice to Jupiter, 
the sixth Heaven, in which he finds the souls of those who had ad- 
ministered justice rightly in the world, so disposed, as to form the 
figure of an eagle. The Canto concludes with an invective against 
the avarice of the clergy, and especially of the Pope. 


OW in his word, sole, ruminating, joy’d 
That blessed spirit: and I fed on mine, 
Tempering the sweet with bitter. She meanwhile, 
Who led me unto God, admonish’d: ‘“ Muse 
On other thoughts: bethink thee, that near Him 
I dwell, who recompenseth every wrong.” 
At the sweet sounds of comfort straight I turn’d; 
And, in the saintly eyes what love was seen, 
I leave in silence here, nor through distrust 
Of my words only, but that to such bliss 
The mind remounts not without aid. Thus much 
Yet may I speak; that, as I gazed on her, 
Affection found no room for other wish. 
While the everlasting pleasure, that did full 
On Beatrice shine, with second view 
From her fair countenance my gladden’d soul 
Contented; vanquishing me with a beam 
Of her soft smile, she spake: ‘‘ Turn thee, and list. 
These eyes are not thy only Paradise.” 
As here, we sometimes in the looks may see 
The affection mark’d, when that its sway hath ta’en 


‘PARADISE 359 


The spirit wholly; thus the hallow’d light,? 

To whom I turn’d, flashing, bewray’d its will 

To talk yet further with me, and began: 

“On this fifth lodgment of the tree,? whose life 

Is from its top, whose fruit is ever fair 

And leaf unwithering, blessed spirits abide, 

That were below, ere they arrived in heaven, 

So mighty in renown, as every muse 

Might grace her triumph with them. On the horns 

Look, therefore, of the cross: he whom I name, 

Shall there enact, as doth in summer cloud 

Its nimble fire.” Along the cross I saw, 

At the repeated name of Joshua, 

A splendor gliding; nor, the word was said, 

Ere it was done: then, at the naming, saw, 

Of the great Maccabee,’? another move 

With whirling speed; and gladness was the scourge 

Unto that top. The next for Charlemain 

And for the peer Orlando, two my gaze 

Pursued, intently, as the eye pursues 

A falcon flying. Last, along the cross, 

William, and Renard,* and Duke Godfrey ° drew 

My ken, and Robert Guiscard.® And the soul 

Who spake with me, among the other lights 

Did move away, and mix; and with the quire 

Of heavenly songsters proved his tuneful skill. 
To Beatrice on my right I bent, 

Looking for intimation, or by word 

Or act, what next behoved; and did descry 

Such mere effulgence in her eyes, such joy, 

It pass’d all former wont. And, as by sense 

Of new delight, the man, who perseveres 

In good deeds, doth perceive, from day to day, 

His virtue growing; I e’en thus perceived, 


2 “ The hallow’d light.” In which the age of Charlemain. The former, Will- 


spirit of Facciagaide was enclosed. iam I of Orange, supposed to have been 
3 “On this fifth lodgment of the tree.”’ the founder of the present illustrious 
Mars, the fifth of the heavens. family of that name, died about 808. 
8‘* The great Maccabee.”? Judas Mac- The latter is better known by having 
cabzus. been celebrated by Ariosto, under the 


4“ William, and Renard.” Probably, name of Rinaldo. 
not William II of Orange, and his 5“ Duke Godfrey.” Godfrey of 
kinsman Raimbaud, two of the crusaders Bouillon. 


Godfrey of Bouillon, but rather Robert Guiscard.” See ‘ Hell,” 


the two more celebrated heroes in the Canto xxviii. 12. 


350 


THE DIVINE COMEDY. 


Of my ascent, together with the heaven, 

The circuit widen’d; noting the increase 

Of beauty in that wonder. Like the change 

In a brief moment on some maiden’s cheek, 
Which, from its fairness, doth discharge the weight 
Of pudency, that stain’d it; such in her, 

And to mine eyes so sudden was the change, 
Through silvery whiteness of that temperate star 
Whose sixth orb now enfolded us. I saw, 
Within that jovial cresset, the clear sparks 

Of love, that reign’d there, fashion to my view 
Our language. And as birds, from river banks 
Arisen, now in round, now lengthen’d troop, 
Array them in their flight, greeting, as seems, 
Their new-found pastures; so, within the lights, 
The saintly creatures flying, sang; and made 
Now D, now I, now L, figured i’ the air. 

First singing to their notes they moved; then, one 
Becoming of these signs, a little while 

Did rest them, and were mute. O nymph divine 
Of Pegasean race! who souls; which thou 
Inspirest, makest glorious and long-lived, as they 
Cities and realms by thee; thou with thyself 
Inform me; that I may set forth the shapes, 

As fancy doth present them: be thy power 
Display’d in this brief song. The characters, 
Vocal and consonant, were five-fold seven. 

In order, each, as they appear’d, I mark’d 

Diligite Justitiam, the first, . 

Both verb and noun all blazon’d; and the extreme, 
Qui judicatis terram. In the M 

Of the fifth word they held their station; 
Making the star seem silver streak’d with gold. 
And on the summit of the M, I saw 
Descending other lights, that rested there, 
Singing, methinks, their bliss and primal good. 
Then, as at shaking of a lighted brand, : 
Sparkles innumerable on all sides 

Rise scatter’d, source of augury to the unwise: 
Thus more than thousand twinkling lustres hence 


PARADISE 


361 


Seem’d reascending; and a higher pitch 

Some mounting, and some less, e’en as the sun, 

Which kindleth them, decreed. And when each one 
Had settled in his place; the head and neck 

Then saw I of an eagle, livelily 


Graved in that streaky fire. 


Who painteth there,’ 


Hath none to guide Him: of Himself he guides: 
And every line and texture of the nest 
Doth own from Him the virtue fashions it. 
The other bright beatitude,® that seem’d 
Erewhile, with lilied crowning, well content 
To over-canopy the M, moved forth, 
Following gently the impress of the bird. 

Sweet star! what glorious and thick-studded gems 
Declared to me our justice on the earth 
To be the effluence of that heaven, which thou, 
Thyself a costly jewel, dost inlay. 
Therefore I pray the Sovran Mind, from whom 
Thy motion and thy virtue are begun, 
That He would look from whence the fog doth rise, 
To vitiate thy beam; so that once more ® 
He may put forth his hand ’gainst such, as drive 
Their traffic in that sanctuary, whose walls 
With miracles and martyrdoms were built. 
Ye host of heaven, whose glory I survey! 
O beg'ye grace for those, that are, on earth, 
All after ill example gone astray. 
War once had for his instrument the sword: 
But now ’tis made, taking the bread away,’ 
Which the good Father locks from none.—And thou, 
That writest but to cancel,” think, that they, 
Who for the vineyard, which thou wastest, died, 
Peter and Paul, live yet, and mark thy doings. 
Thou hast good cause to cry, “ My heart so cleaves 
To him, that lived in solitude remote, 


hit ‘6 Who painteth there.” The Deity 
imself. 
8 “ Beatitude.”’ The band of spirits. 

8“ That one more.” That he may 
again drive out those who buy and sell 
in the temple. 

10 “ Taking the bread away.” X- 
communication, or interdiction of the 
Eucharist, is now employed as a weapon 
of warfare. 


11 “ That writest but to cancel.”? And 
thou, Pope Boniface, who writest thy 
ecclesiastical censures for no other pur- 
pose than to be paid for revoking them, 

2“ To him.” The coin of Florence 
was stamped with the impression of 
John the Baptist; and, for this, the 
avaricious Pope is made to declare that 
he felt more devotion, than either for 
Peter or Paul. 


362 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And for a dance was drage’d to martyrdom, 
I wist not of the fisherman nor Paul.” 


CANTO XIX. 


ANCU MENTS eee et Dees ece Pavegeeiie nes woot at from a 
multitude of spirits, that compose it; and declares the cause for 
which it is exalted to that state of glory. It then solves a doubt, 
which our Poet had entertained, respecting the possibility of salva- 
tion without belief in Christ; exposes the inefficacy of a mere pro- 


fession of such belief; and prophesies the evil appearance that many 
Christian potentates will make at the day of judgment. 


EFORE my sight appear’d, with open wings, 
B The beauteous image; in fruition sweet, 
Gladdening the thronged spirits. Each did seem 
A little ruby, whereon so intense 
The sun-beam glow’d, that to mine eyes it came 
In clear refraction. And that, which next 
Befalls me to portray, voice hath not utter’d, 
Nor hath ink written, nor in fantasy 
Was e’er conceived. ¥ For I beheld and heard 
The beak discourse; and, what intention form’d 
Of many, singly as of one express, 
Beginning: “ For that I was just and piteous, 
I am exalted to this height of glory, 
The which no wish exceeds: and there on earth 
Have I my memory left, e’en by the bad 
Commended, while they leave its course untrod.” 
Thus is one heat from many embers felt ; 
As in that image many were the loves, 
And one the voice, that issued from them all: 
Whence I address’d them: ‘“ O perennial flowers 
Of gladness everlasting! that exhale 
In single breath your odors manifold ; 
Breathe now: and let the hunger be appeased, 
That with great craving long hath held my soul, 
Finding no food on earth. This well I know; 
That if there be in heaven a realm, that shows 
In faithful mirror the celestial Justice, 


PARADISE 363 


Yours without veil reflects it. Ye discern 

The heed, wherewith I do prepare myself 

To hearken; ye, the doubt, that urges me 

With such inveterate craving.” Straight I saw, 
Like to a falcon issuing from the hood, 

That rears his head, and claps him with his wings, 
His beauty and his eagerness bewraying ; 

So saw I move that stately sign, with praise 
Of grace divine inwoven, and high song 

Of inexpressive joy. “ He,” it began, 

“Who turn’d his compass on the worlds extreme, 
And in that space so variously hath wrought, 
Both openly and in secret; in such wise 

Could not, through all the universe, display 
Impression of his glory, that the Word 

Of his omniscience should not still remain 

In infinite excess. In proof whereof, 

He first through pride supplanted, who was sum 
Of each created being, waited not 

For light celestial; and abortive fell. 

Whence needs each lesser nature is but scant 
Receptacle unto that Good, which knows 

No limit measured by itself alone. 

Therefore your sight, of the omnipresent Mind 
A single beam, its origin must own 

Surpassing far its utmost potency. 

The ken, your world is gifted with, descends 

In the everlasting Justice as low down, 

As eye doth in the sea; which, though it mark 
The bottom from the shore, in the wide main 
Discerns it not; and ne’ertheless it is; 

But hidden through its deepness. Light is none, 
Save that which cometh from the pure serene 

Of ne’er disturbed ether: for the rest, 

’Tis darkness all; or shadow of the flesh, 

Or else its poison. Here confess reveal’d 

That covert, which hath hidden from thy search 
The living justice, of the which thou madest 
Such frequent question; for thou said’st—‘ A man 
Is born on Indus’ banks, and none is there 


364 THE DIVINE COMEDY ~ 


Who speaks of Christ, nor who doth read nor write; 
And all his inclinations and his acts, 
As far as human reason sees, are good; 
And he offendeth not in word or deed: 
But unbaptized he dies, and void of faith. 
Where is the justice that condemns him? where 
His blame, if he believeth not ? —What then, 
And who art thou, that on the stool wouldst sit 
To judge at distance of a thousand miles 
With the short-sighted vision of a span? 
To him, who subtilizes thus with me, 
There would assuredly be room for doubt 
Even to wonder, did not the safe word 
Of Scripture hold supreme authority. 
“O animals of clay! O spirits gross! 
The primal will,* that in itself is good, 
Hath from itself, the chief Good, ne’er been moved. 
Justice consists in consonance with it, 
Derivable by no created good, ) 
Whose very cause depends upon its beam.” 

As on her nest the stork, that turns about 
Unto her young, whom lately she hath fed, 
Whiles they with upward eyes do look on her; 
So lifted I my gaze; and, bending so, 

The ever-biessed image waved its wings, . 

Laboring with such deep counsel. Wheeling round 
It warbled, and did say: “As are my notes 

To thee, who understand’st them not; such is 

The eternal judgment unto mortal ken.” 

Then still abiding in that ensign ranged, 
Wherewith the Romans overawed the world, 
Those burning splendors of the Holy Spirit 
Took up the strain; and thus it spake again; 

“ None ever hath ascended to this realm, 

Who hath not a believer been in Christ, 

Either before or after the blessed limbs 

Were nail’d upon the wood. But lo! of those 


Who call “ Christ! Christ !’? there shall be many found, 
2 “ The primal will.” The divine will. Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 


8“ Who call ‘ Christ! Christ!’’* ‘Not heaven.’’—Matt. vii. 21. 
évery one that saith unto me, Lord, 


PARADISE 


365 


In judgment, further off from him by far, 

Than such to whom his name was never known. 
Christians like these the AEthiop? shall condemn: 
When that the two assemblages shall part; 

One rich eternally, the other poor. 

“What may the Persians say unto your kings, 
When they shall see that volume,* in the which 
All their dispraise is written, spread to view? 
There amidst Albert’s ® works shall that be read, 
Which will give speedy motion to the pen, 

When Prague ® shall mourn her desolated realm. 
There shall be read the woe, that he * doth work 
With his adulterate money on the Seine, 

Who by the tusk will perish: there be read 

The thirsting pride, that maketh fool alike 

The English and Scot,’ impatient of their bound. 
There shall be seen the Spaniard’s luxury ; ® 

The delicate living there of the Bohemian,?° 
Who still to worth has been a willing stranger. 
The halter of Jerusalem ™ shall see 

A unit for his virtue; for his vices, 
No less a mark than million. He,'* who guards 
The isle of fire by old Anchises honor’d, 

Shall find his avarice there and cowardice; 

And better to denote his littleness, 

The writing must be letters maim’d, that speak 


Much in a narrow space. 


8“ The Athiop.” The men of Nine- 
veh shail rise in judgment with this 

eneration, and shall condemn it.”— 

att. xii. 41. 

4“ That volume.” ‘“ And I saw_the 
dead, smalt and great, stand before God; 
‘and the books were opened: and another 
book was opened, which is the book of 
life: and the dead were judged out of 
those things which were written in the 
books, according to their works.”—Rev. 


ren > 6¢ 2? 2 
Albert. Purgatory,” Canto vi. 


< 8“ Prague.” The eagle predicts the 
devastation of Bohemia by Albert, 
which happened soon after this time, 
when that Emperor obtained the king- 
dom for his eldest son Rodolph. 

7“ He.” Philip IV of France, after 
the battle of Courtrai, 1302, in which the 
French were defeated by the Flemings, 
raised the nominal value of the coin. 


All there shall know 


This King died in consequence of his 
horse being thrown to the ground by 
a wild boar, in 1314. 

8 “ The English and Scot.” He ad- 
verts to the disputes between John 
Baliol and Edward I, the latter of whom 
is commended in the ‘“ Purgatory,” 
Canto vii. 130. 

® “The Spaniard’s luxury.’”? It seems 
probable that the allusion is to Ferdi- 
nand IV, who came to the crown in 
1295, and died in 1312, at the age of 
twenty-four, in consequence, as it was 
supposed, of his extreme intemperance. 

10“ The Bohemian.” Wenceslaus II. 


’ * Purgatory,” Canto vii. 90. 


11“ The halter of Jerusalem.” Charles 
Ne of Naples and Jerusalem, who was 
ame. 

12“ He”? Frederick of Sicily, son of 
Peter III of Arragon. Purgatory,” 
Canto vii. ais The isle of fire is Sicily, 
where was the tomb of Anchises. 


266 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


His uncle *° and his brother’s ** filthy doings, 

Who so renown’d a nation and two crowns 

Have bastardized. And they, of Portugal +5 

And Norway,’ there shall be exposed, with him 
Of Ratza,'7 who hath counterfeited ill 

The coin of Venice. O blessed Hungary! %% 

If thou no longer patiently abidest 

Thy ill-entreating: and, O blessed Navarre! ?® 
If with thy mountainous girdle 2° thou wouldst arm thee. 
In earnest of that day, e’en now are heard 
Wailings and groans in Famagosta’s streets 

And Nicosia’s,”* grudging at their beast, 

Who keepeth even footing with the rest.” 


18 “ His uncle.’’ pee King of Ma- 
jorca and Minorca, brother to Peter III. 

14 “* His brother.” James II of Arra- 
gon, who died in 1327. See “ Purga- 
tory,’ Canto vii. 117. 

18“ Of Portugal.” In the time of 
Dante, Dionysius was King of Portu- 
gal. He died in 1325, after a reign of 
nearly forty-six years, and does not 
seem to have deserved the stigma here 
fastened on him. Perhaps the _ rebel- 
lious son of Dionysius may be alluded 


to. 

16 “ Norway.” Haquin, King of Nor- 
way, is probably meant; who having 
given refuge to the murderers of Eric 

I, King of Denmark, a.p. 1288, com- 
menced a war against his successor, 
Eric VIII, which continued for nine 
years, almost to the utter ruin and de- 
struction of both kingdoms. 


him 
Of Ratza.’’ 
One of the dynasty of the house of 
Nemagna, which ruled the Kingdom of 
Rassia or Ratza, in Sclavonia, from 1161 
to 1371, and whose history may be found 


in Mauro Orbino. Uladislaus appears 
to have been the sovereign in Dante’s 
time; but the disgraceful forgery, ad- 
verted to in the text, is not recorded 
by the historian. 

18“ Hungary.” The Kingdom of 
Hungary was about this time disputed 
by_ Carobert, son of Charles artel, 
and Wenceslas, Prince of Bohemia, son 
of Wenceslas IT. 

19 “* Navarre.”’ Navarre was now un- 
der the yoke of France. It soon after 
(in_ 1328) followed the advice of Dante, 
and had a monarch of its own. 

20 “ Mountainous girdle.” The Pyr- 
enees. 


Famagosta’s streets 
And Nicosia’s.” 

Cities in the Kingdom of Cyprus, at 
that time ruled by Henry VII, a pusil- 
lanimous prince. The meaning appears 
to be, that the complaints made by 
those cities of their weak and worthless 
Governor may be regarded as an earn- 
at of his condemnation at the las¢ 
OOMes 


PARADISE 367 


CANTO XX 


ARGUMENT.—The eagle celebrates the praise of certain kings, whose 
glorified spirits form the eye of the bird. In the pupil is David; 
and, in the circle round it, Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William 
II of Sicily, and Ripheus, It explains to our Poet how the souls 
of those whom he supposed to have had no means of believing in 
Christ, came to be in Heaven; and concludes with an admonition 
against presuming to fathom the counsels of God. 


HEN, disappearing from our hemisphere, 
The world’s enlightener vanishes, and day 


On all sides wasteth; suddenly the sky, 
Erewhile irradiate only with his beam, 
Is yet again unfolded, putting forth 
Innumerable lights wherein one shines. 
Of such vicissitude in Heaven I thought; 
As the great sign, that marshalleth the world 
And the world’s leaders, in the blessed beak 
Was silent: for that all those living lights, 
Waxing in splendor, burst forth into songs, 
Such as from memory glide and fall away. 

Sweet Love, that dost apparel thee in smiles! 
How lustrous was thy semblance in those sparkles, 
Which merely are from holy thoughts inspired. 

Aiter ? the precious and bright beaming stones, 
That did ingem the sixth light, ceased the chiming 
Of their angelic beils; methought I heard 
The murmuring of a river, that doth fall 
From rock to rock transpicuous, making known 
The rickaess of his spring-head: and as sound 
Of cittern, at the fret-board, or of pipe, 

Is, at the wind-hoie. modulate and tuned; 
Thus up the neck, as it were hollow, rose 
That murmuring of the eagle; and forthwith 
Voice there assumed; and thence along the beak 
Issued in form of words, such as my heart 
Did look for, on whose tables I inscribed them. 
“The part in me, that sees and bears the sun 
2“ The area sign.” The eagle, the sixth planet (Jupiter) had ceased their 


imperial e ensig singing. 
* After.” ria tler the spirits in the 


368 


b 


In mortal eagles,’ 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


it began, “ must now 


Be noted steadfastly: for, of the fires, 
That figure me, those, glittering in mine eye, 


Are chief of all the greatest. 


This, that shines 


Midmost for pupil, was the same who® sang 
The Holy Spirit’s song, and bare about 

The ark from town to town: now doth he know 
The merit of his soul-impassion’d strains 

By their well-fitted guerdon. Of the five, 
That make the circle of the vision, he,* 

Who to the beak is nearest, comforted 

The widow for her son: now doth he know, 
How dear it costeth not to follow Christ; 
Both from experience of this pleasant life, 


And of its opposite. 


He next,® who follows 


In the circumference, for the over-arch, 

By true repenting slack’d the pace of death: 

Now knoweth he, that the decrees of heaven ® 
Alter not, when, through pious prayer below, 
To-day is made to-morrow’s destiny. 

The other following,’ with the laws and me, 

To yield the shepherd room, pass’d o’er ® to Greece; 
From good intent, producing evil fruit: 

Now knoweth he, how all the ill, derived 

From his well doing, doth not harm him aught; 
Though it have brought destruction on the world. 
That, which thou seest in the under bow, 

Was William,? whom that land bewails, which weeps 
For Charles and Frederick living: now he knows, 
How well is loved in heaven the righteous king; 
Which he betokens by his radiant seeming. 

Who, in the erring world beneath, would deem 


8 “ Who.” David. 

4“ He.” Trajan. See 
Canto x. 68. 

5“* He next.” Hezekiah. 

6 ‘**The decrees of Heaven.’ The 
eternal counsels of God are indeed 
immutable, though they appear to us 
men to be altered by the prayers of the 
pious. . 

7 The other following.” Constan- 
tine. There is no passage in which 
Dante’s opinion of the evil that had 
arisen from the mixture of the civil 
with the ecclesiastical power is more 
unequivocally declared. 


“* Purgatory,” 


8“ Pass’d o’er.”? Left the Roman 
State to the Pope, and transferred the 
seat of the empire to Constantinople. 

% “ William.” William II, King of 
Sicily, at the latter part of the twelfth 
century, He was of the Norman line 
of sovereigns, and optained the appella- 
tion of “the Good”; and, as the Poet 
says, his loss was as much the subject 
of regret_in his dominions, as the pres- 
ence of Charles II of Anjou, and Fred- 
erick of Arragon, was of sorrow and 
complaint. 


PARADISE | 36g 


That Trojan Ripheus,’° in this round, was set, 

Fifth of the saintly splendors? now he knows 

Enough of that, which the world cannot see; 

The grace divine: albeit e’en his sight 

Reach not its utmost depth.” Like to the lark, 

That warbling in the air expatiates long, 

Then, trilling out his last sweet melody, 

Drops, satiate with the sweetness; such appear’d 

That image, stamped by the everlasting pleasure, 

Which fashions, as they are, all things that be. 
I, though my doubting were as manifest, 

As is through glass the hue that mantles it, 

In silence waited not; for to my lips 

“ What things are these?” involuntary rush’d, 

And forced a passage out: whereat I mark’d 

A sudden lightening and new revelry. 

The eye was kindled; and the blessed sign, 

No more to keep me wondering and suspense, 

Replied: “I see that thou believest these things, 

Because I tell them, but discern’st not how; 

So that thy knowledge waits not on thy faith: 

As one, who knows the name of thing by rote, 

But is a stranger to its properties, 

Till other’s tongue reveal them. Fervent love, 

And lively hope, with violence assail 

The kingdom of the heavens, and overcome 

The will of the Most High; not in such sort 

As man prevails o’er man; but conquers it, 

Because ’tis willing to be conquer’d; still, 

Though conquer’d, by its mercy, conquering. 

“ Those, in the eye who live the first and fifth, 
Cause thee to marvel, in that thou behold’st 
The region of the angels deck’d with them. 
They quitted not their bodies, as thou deem’st, 
Gentiles, but Christians; in firm rooted faith, 
This,’! of the feet in future to be pierced, 
That,12 of feet nail’d already to the cross. 

- Then iphces Seth, ae justest far of all 2 “ That” rae 


The sons of Troy. 
ar thet “ 7AEneid.” lib. ii. 427. 


370 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


One from the barrier of the dark abyss, 

Where never any with good-will returns, 

Came back unto his bones. Of lively hope 

Such was the meed; of lively hope, that wing’d 
The prayers ** sent up to God for his release, 

And put power into them to bend His will. 

The glorious Spirit, of whom I speak to thee, 

A little while returning to the flesh, 

Believed in him, who had the means to help; 
And, in believing, nourish’d such a flame 

Of holy love, that at the second death 

He was made sharer in our gamesome mirth, 
The other, through the riches of that grace, 
Which from so deep a fountain doth distil, 

As never eye created saw its rising, 

Placed all his love below on just and right: 
Wherefore, of grace, God oped in him the eye 

To the redemption of mankind to come; 
Wherein believing, he endured no more 

The filth of Paganism, and for their ways 
Rebuked the stubborn nations. The three nymphs, 
Whom at the right wheel thou beheld’st advancing, 
Were sponsors for him, more than thousand years 
Before baptizing. O how far removed, 
Predestination! is thy root from such 

As see not the First Cause entire: and ye, 

O mortal men! be wary how ye judge: 

For we, who see our Maker, know not yet 

The number of the chosen; and esteem 

Such scantiness of knowledge our delight: 

For all our good is, in that primal good, 
Concentrate; and God’s will and ours are one.” 
So, by that form divine, was given to me 
Sweet medicine to clear and strengthen sight. 

And, as one handling skilfully the harp, 
Attendant on some skilful songster’s voice, 
Bids the chord vibrate; and therein the song 
Acquires more pleasure: so the whilst it spake, 


ee Lae 
” 


18 The prayers.” The prayers of St. ene Charity. “ Purgatory,’’ Canto xxix, 
116, 


Gregory. ‘ 
14“ The three nymphs.” Faith, Hope, 


PARADISE 371 


It doth remember me, that I beheld 

The pair *® of blessed luminaries move, 

Like the accordant twinkling of two eyes, 
Their beamy circlets, dancing to the sounds. 


CANTO XXI 


ARGUMENT.—Dante ascends with Beatrice to the seventh Heaven, which 
is the planet Saturn; wherein is placed a ladder, so lofty, that the 
top of it is out of his sight. Here are the souls of those who had 
passed their life in holy retirement and contemplation. Piero 
Damiano comes near them, and answers questions put to him by 
Dante; then declares who he was on earth; and ends by declaiming 
against the luxury of pastors and prelates in those times. 


GAIN mine eyes were fix’d on Beatrice; 
And, with mine eyes, my soul that in her looks 
Found all contentment. Yet no smile she wore: 

And, “ Did I smile,” quoth she, “thou wouldst be straight 
Like Semele when into ashes turn’d: 
For, mounting these eternal palace-stairs, 
My beauty, which the loftier it climbs, 
As thou hast noted, still doth kindle more, 
So shines, that, were no tempering interposed, 
Thy mortal puissance would from its rays 
Shrink, as the leaf doth from the thunderbolt. 
Into the seventh splendor '* are we waited, 
That, underneath the burning lion’s breast,1? 
Beams, in this hour, commingled with his might. 
Thy mind be with thine eyes; and, in them, mirror’d 18 
The shape, which in this mirror shall be shown.” 

Whoso can deem, how fondly I had fed 
My sight upon her blissful countenance, 
May know, when to new thoughts I changed, what joy 
To do the bidding of my heavenly guide; 
In equal balance,’® poising either weight. 


18 ‘‘ The pair.” Ripheus and Trajan, this mirror,” the planet, that is, of 
16 “ The seventh splendor.”” Theplanet Saturn (soon after, v. 22, called the 
Saturn crystal), “ be reflected in the mirror of 


47 The burning lion’s breast.’” The thy sig ight. 
constellation Leo. ®“ In equal balance.” iy her willy 
‘In them, mirror’d.” “Let the was as t in Niidag ih ate | with her will, 

form which thou shalt now behold in as in beholding her countenance. 


372 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Within the crystal, which records the name 
(As its remoter circle girds the world) 
Of that loved monarch,*° in whose happy reign 
No ill had power to harm, I saw rear’d up, 
In color like to sun-illumined gold, 
A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain, 
So lofty was the summit ; down whose steps 
I saw the splendors in such multitude 
Descending, every light in heaven, methought, 
Was shed thence. As the rooks, at dawn of day, 
Bestirring them to dry their feathers chill, 
Some speed their way a-field; and homeward some, 
Returning, cross their flight; while some abide, 
And wheel around their airy lodge: so seem’d 
That glitterance,?* wafted on alternate wing, 
As upon certain stair it came, and clash’d 
Its shining. And one, lingering near us, wax’d 
So bright, that in my thought I said: “ The love, 
Which this betokens me, admits no doubt.” 
Unwillingly from question I refrain; 
To her, by whom my silence and my speech 
Are order’d, looking for a sign: whence she, 
Who in the sight of Him, that seeth all, 
Saw wherefore I was silent, prompted me 
To indulge the fervent wish; and I began: 
“T am not worthy, of my own desert, 
That thou shouldst answer me: but for her sake, 
Who hath vouchsafed my asking, spirit blessed, 
That in thy joy are shrouded! say the cause, 
Which bringeth thee so near: and wherefore, say, 
Doth the sweet symphony of Paradise 
Keep silence here, pervading with such sounds 
Of rapt devotion every lower sphere? ” 
“ Mortal art thou in hearing, as in sight; ” 
Was the reply: “and what forbade the smile 2? 
Of Beatrice interrupts our song. 
Only to yield thee gladness of my voice, 


2 “* Of that loved monarch.” Saturn. different movements, pion cog has de 
Compare ** Hell,” Canto Xiv. OI. scribed as made by the b 

21 ** That glitterance.” That multi- “What forbade he pay ” Bee 
tude of shining spirits, who, coming to ae it would have overcome thee. 
a certain point of the ladder, made those 


PARADISE 373 


And of the light that vests me, I thus far 
Descend these hallow’d steps; not that more love 
Invites me; for, lo! there aloft,?* as much 
Or more of love is witness’d in those flames: 
But such my lot by charity assign’d, 
That makes us ready servants, as thou seest, 
To execute the counsel of the Highest.” 

“That in this court,” said I, “O sacred lamp! 
Love no compulsion needs, but follows free 
The eternal Providence, I well discern: 
This harder find to deem: why, of thy peers, 
Thou only, to this office wert foredoom’d.” 

I had not ended, when, like rapid mill, 
Upon its centre whirl’d the light; and then 
The love that did inhabit there, replied: 
“Splendor eternal, piercing through these folds, 
Its virtue to my vision knits; and thus 
Supported, lifts me so above myself, 
That on the sovran essence, which it wells from, 
I have the power to gaze: and hence the joy, 
Wherewith I sparkle, equalling with my blaze 
The keenness of my sight. But not the soul,** 
That is in heaven most lustrous, nor the seraph, 
That hath his eyes most fix’d on God, shall solve 
What thou hast ask’d: for in the abyss it lies 
Of th’ everlasting statute sunk so low, 
That no created ken may fathom it. 
And, to the mortal world when thou return’st, 
Be this reported: that none henceforth dare 
Direct his footsteps to so dread a bourn. 
The mind, that here is radiant, on the earth 
Ts wrapt in mist. Look then if she may do 
Below, what passeth her ability 
When she is-ta’en to heaven.” By words like these 
Admonish’d, I the question urged no more; 
And of the spirit humbly sued alone 
To instruct me of its state. “ ’Twixt either shore *° 


23 * There aloft.” Where the other 25 “ Twixt either shore.” Between the 
souls were. Adriatic Gulf and the Mediterranean 
% “Not the soul.” The particular Sea. 
ends of Providence being concealed 
from the very angels themselves. 


Classics. Vol. 34—Q 


374 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Of Italy, nor distant from thy land, 

A stony ridge?® ariseth; in such sort, 

The thunder doth not lift his voice so high. 
They call it Catria: 77 at whose foot, a cell 
Is sacred to the lonely Eremite; 

For worship set apart and holy rites.” 


A third time thus it spake; then added: 


“ There 


So firmly to God’s service I adhered, 
That with no costlier viands than the juice 
Of olives, easily I pass’d the heats 

Of summer and the winter frosts; content 


In heaven-ward musings. 


Rich were the returns 


And fertile, which that cloister once was used 
To render to these heavens: now ’tis fallen 
Into a waste so empty, that ere long 

Detection must lay bare its vanity. 

Pietro Damiano*® there was I yclept: 

Pietro the sinner, when before I dwelt, 

Beside the Adriatic,?® in the house 

Of our blessed Lady. Near upon my close 

Of mortal life, through much importuning 

I was constrained to wear the hat,°° that still 
From bad to worse is shifted.—Cephas*! came; 
He came, who was the Holy Spirit’s vessel ; *? 
Barefoot and lean; eating their bread, as chanced, 


At the first table. 


Modern Shepherds need 


Those who on either hand may prop and lead them, 
So burly are they grown; and from behind, | 


Others to hotst them. 


26“ A stony ridge.” A part of the 
Apennines. 

7 “ Catria.”” Now the Abbey of Santa 
Croce, in the Duchy of, Urbino, about 
half way between Gubbio and La Per- 
gola. ere Dante is said to have re- 
sided for some time. 

28 “* Pietro Damiano.” S. Pietro 
Damiano obtained a great and well- 
merited reputation by the pains he 
took to correct the abuses among the 
clergy. Ravenna is supposed to have 
been the place of his birth, about 1007. 
He was employed in several important 
missions, and rewarded by Stephen IX 
with the dignity of cardinal, and the 
bishopric of Ostia, to which, however, 
he preferred his former retreat in the 
monastery of Fonte Avellana, and_pre- 


vailed on Alexander II to permit him to. 


Down the palfrey’s sides 


retire thither. Yet he did not long con- 
tinue in this seclusion, before he was 
sent on other embassies. He died at 
Faenza in 1072. His letters throw much 
light on the obscure history of these 
times. Besides them, he has left several 
treatises on sacred and_ ecclesiastical 
subjects. His eloquence is worthy of a 
better age. 

29 “* Beside the Adriatic.”? S. Pietro 
Damiano is made to distinguish himself 
from S. Pietro degli Onesti, surnamed 
** Tl Peccator,” founder of the monastery 
of S. Maria del Porto,.on the Adriatic 
coast, near Ravenna, who died 1119, at 
about eighty years of age. 

30 “* The hat.” The cardinal’s hat. 

81 “ Cephas.” St. Peter. 

a2 “*The Holy Spirit’s vessel.” . St. 
Paul. See “‘ Hell,” Canto ii. 30. 


PARADISE 376 


Spread their broad mantles, so as both the beasts 
Are cover’d with one skin. O patience! thou 
That look’st on this, and dost endure so long.” 

I at those accents saw the splendors down 
From step to step alight, and wheel, and wax, 
Fach circuiting, more beautiful. Round this*® 

_ They came, and stay’d them; utter’d then a shout 
So loud, it hath no likeness here: nor I 
Wist what it spake, so deafening was the thunder. 


CANTO XXII 


ARGUMENT.—He beholds many other spirits of the devout and contem- 
plative; and among these is addressed by St. Benedict, who, after 
disclosing his own name and the names of certain of his companions 
in bliss, replies to the request made by our Poet that he might look 
on the form of the saint, without that covering of splendor, which 
then invested it; and then proceeds, lastly, to inveigh against the 
corruption of the monks. Next Dante mounts with his heavenly 
conductress to the eighth Heaven, or that of the fixed stars, which 
he enters at the constellation of the Twins; and thence. looking 
back, reviews all the space he has passed between his present station 
and the earth. 


STOUNDED, to the guardian of my steps 
A I turn’d me, like the child, who always runs 
Thither for succor, where he trusteth most: 

‘And she was like the mother, who her son 

Beholding pale and breathless, with her voice 

Soothes him, and he is cheer’d; for thus she spake, 
Soothing me: ‘“ Know’st not thou, thou art in heaven? 
And know’st not thou, whatever is in heaven, 

Is holy; and that nothing there is done, 

But is done zealously and well? Deem now, 

What change in thee the song, and what my smile 

Had wrought, since thus the shout had power to move thee; 
In which, couldst thou have understood their prayers, 

The vengeance! were already known to thee, 
83 “ Round this.”? Round the spirit of supposed, intimates the approaching fate 


Pietro Damiano. : ya of Boniface VIII. See “ Purgatory,” 
“The vengeance.” Beatrice, it 1s Canto xx. 86. 


376 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Which thou must witness ere thy mortal hour, 
The sword of heaven is not in haste to smite, 
Nor yet doth linger; save unto his seeming, 
Who, in desire or fear, doth look for it. 
But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view; 
So shalt thou many a famous spirit behold.” 
Mine eyes directing, as she will’d, I saw 
A hundred little spheres, that fairer grew 
By interchange of splendor. I remain’d, 
As one, who fearful of o’er-much presuming, 
Abates in him the keenness of desire, 
Nor dares to question ; when, amid those pearls, 
One largest and most lustrous onward drew, 
That it might yield contentment to my wish; 
And, from within it, these the sounds I heard. 
“Tf thou, like me, beheld’st the charity 
That burns amongst us; what thy mind conceives, 
Were utter’d. But that, ere the lofy bound 
Thou reach, expectance may not weary thee; 
I will make answer even to the thought, 
Which thou hast such respect of. In old days, 
That mountain, at whose side Cassino? rests, 
Was, on its height, frequented by a race 
Deceived and ill-disposed: and I it was,’ 
Who thither carried first the name of Him, 
Who brought the soul-subliming truth to man. 
And such a speeding grace shone over me, 
That from their impious worship I reclaim’d 
The dwellers round about, who with the world 
Were in delusion lost. These other flames, 
The spirits of men contemplative, were all 
Enliven’d by that warmth, whose kindly force 
Gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness. 
Here is Macarius;* Romoaldo® here; 


2 * Cassino.” A castle in the Terra di rank among the practical writers of the 


Lavoro. fourth century, as his works displayed, 
8“ T it was.” A new order of monks, some few things excepted, the brightest 

which in a manner absorbed all the and most lovely protraiture of sanctity 

others that were established in the west, and virtue. 

was instituted, A.D. 5290, by Benedict of 5 ** Romoaldo.” S. Romoaldo, a na- 


Nursia, a man of 
for the age he live 


piety and reputation tive of Ravenna, and the founder of 
in. the order of Camaldoli, died in 1027. 


4“ Macarius.”’ Macarius, an Egyptian He was the author of a commentary on 


monk, undoubtedly deserves the first the Psalms. 


‘ 


PARADISE. 377 


And here my brethren, who their steps refrain’d 
Within the cloisters, and held firm their heart.” 
I answering thus: “ My gentle words and kind, 

And this the cheerful semblance I behold, 

Not unobservant, beaming in ye all, 

Have raised assurance in me; wakening it 
Full-blossom’d in my bosom, as a rose 

Before the sun, when the consummate flower 

Has spread to utmost amplitude. Of thee 

Therefore intreat I, father, to declare 

If I may gain such favor, as to gaze 

Upon thine image by no covering veil’d.” 

“ Brother!” he thus rejoin’d, “in the last sphere® 

Expect completion of thy lofty aim: 

For there on each desire completion waits, 

And there on mine; where every aim is found 
Perfect, entire, and for fulfilment ripe. 

There all things are as they have ever been: 

For space is none to bound; nor pole divides. 

Our ladder reaches even to that clime; 

And so, at giddy distance, mocks thy view. 

Thither the patriarch Jacob® saw it stretch 

Its topmost round; when it appear’d to him 

With angels laden. But to mount it now 

None lifts his foot from earth: and hence my rule 

Is left a profitless stain upon the leaves; 

The walls, for abbey rear’d, turn’d into dens; 

The cowls, to sacks chok’d up with musty meal. 

Foul usury doth not more lift itself 

Against God’s pleasure, than that fruit, which makes 
The hearts of monks so wanton: for whate’er 

Is in the Church’s keeping, all pertains 

To such, as sue for heaven’s sweet sake; and not 

To those, who in respect of kindred claim, 

Or on more vile allowance. Mortal flesh 

Is grown so dainty, good beginnings last not 
6“*In the last sphere.”” The Empy- 7“ The patriarch Jacob.” ‘“ And he 
rean, where he afterward sees St. Bene- dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon 
dict, Canto xxxii. 30. Beatified spirits, the earth, and the top of it reached to 


though they have different heavens al- heaven: and behold the angels of God 
lotted them, have all their seats in that ascending and descending on it.’’—Gen. 


higher sphere. XXVili. 12. 


378 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


From the oak’s birth unto the acorn’s setting. 
His convent Peter founded without gold 
Or silver; I, with prayers and fasting, mine; 
And Francis, his in meek humility. 
And if thou note the point, whence each proceeds, 
Then look what it hath err’d to; thou shalt find 
The white grown murky. Jordan was turn’d back. 
And a less wonder, than the refluent sea, 
May, at God’s pleasure, work amendment here.” 
So saying, to his assembly back he drew: 
And they together cluster’d into one; 
Then all roll’d upward, like an eddying wind. 
The sweet dame beckon’d me to follow them: 
And, by that influence only, so prevail’d 
Over my nature, that no natural motion, 
Ascending or descending here below, 
Had, as I mounted, with my pennon vied. 
So, reader, as my hope is to return 
Unto the holy triumph, for the which 
I- ofttimes wail my sins, and smite my breast; 
Thou hadst been longer drawing out and thrusting 
Thy finger in the fire, than I was, ere 
The sign,’ that followeth Taurus, I beheld, 
And enter’d its precinct. O glorious stars! 
O light impregnate with exceeding virtue! 
To whom whate’er of genius lifteth me 
Above the vulgar, grateful I refer; 
With ye the parent ® of all mortal life 
Arose and set, when I did first inhale 
The Tuscan air; and afterward, when grace 
Vouchsafed me entrance to the lofty wheel ?° 
That in its orb impels ye, fate decreed 
My passage at your clime. To you my soul 
Devoutly sighs, for virtue, even now, 
To meet the hard emprise that draws me on. 
“Thou art so near the sum of blessedness,” 
Said Beatrice, ‘‘ that behoves thy ken 
8 “ The sign.” The constellation of constellation of the Twins at the time 
Gemini f Dante’s birth. 


ae oO 
®‘ The parent.” The sun was in the 10 “The lofty wheel.” The eighth 
heaven; that, of the fixed stars, 


PARADISE | 379 


Be vigilant and clear. And, to this end, 

Or ever thou advance thee further, hence 

Look downward, and contemplate, what a world 

Already stretch’d under our feet there lies: 

So as thy heart may, in its blithest mood, 

_ Present itself to the triumphal throng, 

Which, through the ethereal concave, comes rejoicing.” 
I straight obey’d; and with mine eye return’d 

Through all the seven spheres; and saw this globe 

So pitiful of semblance, that perforce 

It moved my smiles: and him in truth I hold: 

For wisest, who esteems it least; whose thoughts 

Elsewhere are fix’d, him worthiest call and best. 

I saw the daughter of Latona shine 

Without the shadow, whereof late I deem’d 

That dense and rare were cause. Here I sustain’d 

The visage, Hyperion, of thy son; }* 

And mark’d, how near him with their circles, round 

Move Maia and Dione; ?* here discern’d 

Jove’s tempering ’twixt his sire and son; +4 and hence, 

Their changes and their various aspects, 

Distinctly scann’d. Nor might I not descry 

Of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift; 

Nor, of their several distances, not learn. 

This petty area (o’er the which we stride 

So fiercely), as along the eternal Twins 

I wound my way, appear’d before me all, 

Forth from the havens stretch’d unto the hills. 

Then, to the beauteous eyes, mine eyes return’d. 


_ 1 “ Without the shadow.” See Canto mother of the latter, and Maia of the 


ii. 71: former deity.  —s_ 
12“ Of thy son.” The sun. 14“ °Twixt his sire and son.” Be- 
18 “Maia and Dione.’’ The planets. twixt Saturn and Mars. 


Mercury and Venus: Dione being the 


380 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXIII 


ARGUMENT.—He sees Christ triumphing with his Church. The Saviour 
ascends, followed by his virgin Mother. The others remain with 
St. Peter. 


"EN as the bird, who midst the leafy bower 
Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night, 
With her sweet brood; impatient to descry 
Their wished looks, and to bring home their food, 
In the fond quest unconscious of her toil: 
She, of the time prevenient, on the spray, 
That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze 
Expects the sun; nor ever, till the dawn, 
Removeth from the east her eager ken: 
So stood the dame erect, and bent her glance 
Wistfully on that region,’ where the sun 
Abateth most his speed; that, seeing her 
Suspense and wondering, I became as one, 
In whom desire is waken’d, and the hope 
Of somewhat new to come fills with delight. 
Short space ensued; I was not held, I say, 
Long in expectance, when I saw the heaven 
Wax more and more resplendent; and, “‘ Behold,” 
Cried Beatrice, “the triumphal hosts 
Of Christ, and all the harvest gather’d in, 
Made ripe by these revolving spheres.” Meseem’d, 
That, while she spake, her image all did burn; 
And in her eyes such fulness was of joy, 
As I am fain to pass unconstrued by. 
As in the calm full moon, when Trivia? smiles, 
In peerless beauty, ’mid the eternal nymphs,? 
That paint through all its gulfs the blue profound; 
In bright pre-eminence so saw I there 
O’er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew 
Their radiance, as from ours the starry train: 
And, through the living light, so lustrous glow’d 
The substance, that my ken endured it not. 
O Beatrice! sweet and precious guide, 
1“ That region.”” Toward the south, 2“ Trivia.””, A name of Diana. 
where the course of the sun appears 8 “The eternal nymphs.”’ The stars. 


less rapid, than when he is in the east 
or the west. 


PARADISE wy, 381 


Who cheer’d me with her comfortable words: 
*“‘ Against the virtue, that o’erpowereth thee, 
Avails not to resist. Here is the Might,‘ 
And here the Wisdom, which did open lay 
The path, that had been yearned for so long, 
Betwixt the heaven and earth.” Like to the fire, 
That, in a cloud imprison’d, doth break out 
Expansive, so that from its womb enlarged, 
It falleth against nature to the ground ; 
Thus, in that heavenly banqueting, my soul 
Outgrew herself; and, in the transport lost, 
Holds now remembrance none of what she was. 
“Ope thou thine eyes, and mark me: thou hast seen 
Things, that empower thee to sustain my smile.” 
I was as one, when a forgotten dream 
Doth come across him, and he strives in vain 
To shape it in his fantasy again: 
Whenas that gracious boon was proffer’d me, 
Which never may be cancel’d from the book 
Wherein the past is written. Now were all 
Those tongues to sound, that have, on sweetest milk 
Of Polyhymnia and her sisters, fed 
And fatten’d; not with all their help to boot, 
Unto the thousandth parcel of the truth, 
My song might shadow forth that saintly smile, 
How merely, in her saintly looks, it wrought. 
And, with such figuring of Paradise, 
The sacred strain must leap, like one that meets 
A sudden interruption to his road. 
But he, who thinks how ponderous the theme, 
And that ’tis laid upon a mortal shoulder, 
May pardon, if it tremble with the burden. 
The track, our venturous keel must furrow, brooks 
No unribb’d pinnace, no self-sparing pilot. 
“Why doth my face,” said Beatrice, “ thus 
Enamour thee, as that thou dost not turn 
Unto the beautiful garden, blossoming 
Beneath the rays of Christ? Here is the rose,° 
“The Might.”? Our Saviour. Mystica.” ‘I was exalted like a palm- 


6“ The rose.” The Virgin Mary, tree in Engaddi, and as a rose-plant in 
who is termed by the Church, ‘* Rosa Jericho.”’—Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 14. 


382 . THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate s 

And here the lilies,* by whose odor known 

The way of life was follow’d.”’ Prompt I heard 

Her bidding, and encounter’d once again 

The strife of aching vision. As, erewhile, 

Through glance of sun-light, stream’d through broken cloud, 

Mine eyes a flower-besprinkled mead have seen; 

Though veil’d themselves in shade: so saw I there 

Legions of splendors, on whom burning rays 

Shed lightnings from above; yet saw I not 

The fountain whence they flow’d. O gracious virtue! 

Thou, whose broad stamp is on them, higher up 

Thou didst exalt thy glory,’ to give room 

To my o’erlabor’d sight; when at the name 

Of that fair flower,? whom duly I invoke 

Both morn and eve, my soul with all her might 

Collected, on the goodliest ardor fix’d. 

And, as the bright dimensions of the star 

In heaven excelling, as once here on earth, 

Were, in my eye-balls livelily portray’d; 

Lo! from within the sky a cresset ® fell, 

Circling in fashion of a diadem; 

And girt the star; and, hovering, round it wheel’d. 
Whatever melody sounds sweetest here, 

And draws the spirit most unto itself, 

Might seem a rent cloud, when it grates the thunder; 

Compared unto the sounding of that lyre,?° 

Wherewith the goodliest sapphire,'! that inlays 

The floor of heaven, was crown’d. “ Angelic Love 

I am, who thus with hovering flight enwheel 

The lofty rapture from that womb inspired, 

Where our desire did dwell: and round thee so, 

Lady of Heaven! will hover; long as thou 

Thy Son shalt follow, and diviner joy 

Shall from thy presence gild the highest sphere.” 


6 ** The lilies.”” The Apostles. ‘* And 8 “* —— the name 

give ye a sweet savor as frankincense, Of that fair flower.” 

and flourish as a lily.’”—Ecclesiasticus, The name of the Virgin. 

XXxix. 14. ‘A cresset.”” The angel Gabriel. 
7‘ Thou didst exalt thy glory.” The 30 “That lyre.’”?’ By synecdoche, the. 


divine light retired upward, to render ‘lyre is ut for the angel. 

the eyes of Dante more capable of en- “The goodliest sapphire.” The 
during the spectacle which now pre- Virgin. 

sented itself. 


PARADISE 


Such close was to the circling melody: 
And, as it ended, all the other lights 
Took up the strain, and echoed Mary’s name. 
The robe,’ that with its regal folds enwraps 
The world, and with the nearer breath of God 
Doth burn and quiver, held so far retired 
Its inner hem and skirting over us, 
That yet no glimmer of its majesty 
Had stream’d unto me: therefore were mine eyes 
Unequal to pursue the crowned flame,?* 
That towering rose, and sought the seed ** it bore. 
And like to babe, that stretches forth its arms 
For very eagerness toward the breast, 
After the milk is taken; so outstretch’d 
Their wavy summits all the fervent band, 
Through zealous love to Mary: then, in view, 
There halted; and “ Regina Coeli” © sang 
So sweetly, the delight hath left me never. 
Oh! what o’erflowing plenty is up-piled 
In those rich-laden coffers,’® which below 


Sow’d the good seed, whose harvest now they keep. 


Here are the treasures tasted, that with tears 
Were in the Babylonian exile 1” won, 

When gold had fail’d them. Here, in synod high 
Of ancient council with the new convened, 
Under the Son of Mary and of God, 

Victorious he'® his mighty triumph holds, 

To whom the keys of glory were assign’d. 


383 


12 “The robe.” The ninth Heaven 16 “ Those rich-laden coffers.”? Those 


the primum mobile, that enfolds and 
moves the eight lower heavens. 


spirits, who, having sown the seed of 
ood works on earth, now contain the 


“The crowned flame.” The Vir- ruit, Me their pious endeavors. 
gin, with the angel hovering over her. In the Babylonian exile.” Dur- 
14“ The seed.” Our Saviour. ing their abode in this world. 


18 “* Regina Ceeli.’”? The beginning of “He.” St. Peter, with the other 


an anthem, sung by the Church at holy, men of the Old and New Testa 


Easter, in honor of Our Lady. me 


384 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXIV 


ARGUMENT.—St. Peter examines Dante touching Faith, and is con- 
tented with his answers. 


YE! in chosen fellowship advanced 
() To the great supper of the blessed Lamb, 
Whereon who feeds hath every wish fulfill’d; 
If to this man through God’s grace be vouchsafed 
Foretaste of that, which from your table falls, 
Or ever death his fated term prescribe; 
Be ye not heedless of his urgent will: 
But may some influence of your sacred dews 
Sprinkle him. Of the fount ye alway drink, 
~ Whence flows what most he craves.” Beatrice spake; 

And the rejoicing spirits, like to spheres 
On firm-set poles revolving, trail’d a blaze 
Of comet splendor: and as wheels, that wind 
Their circles in the horologe, so work 
The stated rounds, that to the observant eye 
The first seems still, and as it flew, the last; 
E’en thus their carols weaving variously, 
They, by the measure paced, or swift or slow, 
Made me to rate the riches of their joy. 

From that, which I did note in beauty most - 
Excelling, saw I issue forth a flame 
So bright, as none was left more goodly there. 
Round Beatrice thrice it wheel’d about, 
With so divine a song, that fancy’s ear_-- 
Records it not; and the pen passeth on, 
And leaves a blank: for that our mortal speech, 
Nor e’en the inward shaping of the brain, 
Hath colors fine enough to trace such folds. 

“O saintly sister mine! thy prayer devout 
Is with so vehement affection urged, 
Thou dost unbind me from that beauteous sphere.” 

Such were the accents toward my lady breathed 
From that blest ardor, soon as it was stay’d; 
To whom she thus: “O everlasting light 


PARADISE 


Of him, within whose mighty grasp our Lord 

Did leave the keys, which of this wondrous bliss 

He bare below! tent this man as thou wilt, 

With lighter probe or deep, touching the faith, 

By the which thou didst on the billows walk. 

If he in love, in hope, and in belief, 

Be steadfast, is not hid from thee: for thou 

Hast there thy ken, where all things are beheld 

In liveliest portraiture. But since true faith 

Has peopled this fair realm with citizens; 

Meet is, that to exalt its glory more, | 

Thou, in his audience, shouldst thereof discourse.” 
Like to the bachelor, who arms himself, 

And speaks not, till the master have proposed 

The question, to approve, and not to end it; 

So I, in silence, arm’d me, while she spake, 

Summoning up each argument to aid; 

As was behoveful for such questioner, 

And such profession: “ As good Christian ought, 

Declare thee, what is faith?” Whereat I raised 

My forehead to the light, whence this had breathed; 

Then turn’d to Beatrice; and in her looks 

Approval met, that from their inmost fount 

I should unlock the waters. ‘“ May the grace, 

That giveth me the captain of the church 

For confessor,” said I, “ vouchsafe to me 


Apt utterance for my thoughts;” then added: “ Sire 


E’en as set down by the unerring style 
Of thy dear brother, who with thee conspired 
To bring Rome in unto the way of life, 
Faith of things hoped is substance, and the proof 
Of things not seen; and herein doth consist 
Methinks its essence.” “ Rightly hast thou deem’d,” 
Was answer’d; “if thou well discern, why first 
He hath defined it substance, and then proof.” 

“ The deep things,” I replied, “‘ which here I scan 
Distinctly, are below from mortal eye 
So hidden, they have in belief alone 
Their being; on which credence, hope sublime 
Is built: and, therefore substance, it intends. 


385 


386 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And inasmuch as we must needs infer 

From such belief our reasoning, all respect 

To other view excluded; hence of proof 

The intention is derived.” Forthwith I heard: 
“Tf thus, whate’er by learning men attain, 
Were understood; the sophist would want room 
To exercise his wit.’ So breathed the flame 
Of love; then added: “Current is the coin 
Thou utter’st, both in weight and in alloy. 

But tell me, if thou hast it in thy purse.” 

“Even so glittering and so round,” said I, 
“T not a whit misdoubt of its assay.” 

Next issued from the deep-imbosom’d splendor: 
“Say, whence the costly jewel, on the which 
Is founded every virtue, came to thee.” 

“ The flood,” I answer’d, “ from the Spirit of God 
Rain’d down upon the ancient bond and new,+— 
Here is the reasoning, that convinceth me 
So feelingly, each argument beside 
Seems blunt, and forceless, in comparison.” 

Then heard I: ‘“ Wherefore holdest thou that each, 
The elder proposition and the new, 
Which so persuade thee, are the voice of heaven?” 

“The works, that follow’d, evidence their truth; ” 
IT answer’d: “ Nature did not make for these 
The iron hot, or on her anvil mould them.” 

“Who voucheth to thee of the works themselves,” 
Was the reply, “ that they in very deed 
Are that they purport? None hath sworn so to thee.” 

“ That all the world,” said I, “ should have been turn’d 
To Christian, and no miracle been wrought, 

Would in itself be such a miracle, 

The rest were not an hundredth part so great. 
E’en thou went’st forth in poverty and hunger 
To set the goodly plant, that, from the vine 

It once was, now is grown unsightly bramble.” 

That ended, through the high celestial court 
Resounded all the spheres, “ Praise we one God!” 
In song of most unearthly melody. 


16*The ancient bond and new.” The Old and New Testaments, 


PARADISE 387 


And when that Worthy? thus, from branch to branch, 

Examining, had led me, that we now 

Approach’d the topmost bough; he straight resumed: 

“The grace, that holds sweet dalliance with thy soul 

So far discreetly hath thy lips unclosed; 

That, whatsoe’er has passed them, I commend. 

Behoves thee to express, what thou believest, 

The next; and, whereon, thy belief hath grown.” 
“O saintly sire and spirit!” I began, 

“Who seest that, which thou didst so believe, 

As to outstrip feet younger than thine own, 

Toward the sepulchre; thy will is here, 

That I the tenor of my creed unfold; 

And thou, the cause of it, hast likewise ask’d. 

And I reply: I in one God believe; 

One sole eternal Godhead, of whose love 

All Heaven is moved, himself unmoved the while. 

Nor demonstration physical alone, 

Or more intelligential and abstruse. 

Persuades me to this faith: but from that truth 

It cometh to me rather, which is shed 

Through Moses; the rapt Prophets; and the Psalms; 

The Gospel; and what ye yourselves did write, 

When ye were gifted of the Holy Ghost. 

In three eternal Persons I believe; 

Essence threefold and one; mysterious league 

Of union absolute, which, many a time, 

The word of gospel lore upon my mind 

Imprints: and from this germ, this firstling spark 

The lively flame dilates; and, like heaven’s star, 

Doth glitter in me.” As the master hears, 

Well pleased, and then enfoldeth in his arms 

The servant, who hath joyful tidings brought, 

And having told the errand keeps his Peace 

Thus benediction uttering with song, 

Soon as my peace I held, compass’d me thrice 

The apostolic radiance, whose behest 

Had oped my lips: so well their answer pleased. 

2 That Worthy.” “Quel Baron.” 10, we find “Baron Messer Santo 


In the next Canto, St. James is called Antonio.” 
** Barone.” So in Boccaccio, G. vi. 


ARGUMENT.—St. James questions our Poet concerning Hope. 


i“ The fair sheep-fold.” 
whence he was banished. 

2 For its sake.” 
that faith. 


MHE DIVINE COMEDY 


CANTO XXV 


Next St, 
John appears; and, on perceiving that Dante looks intently on him, 
informs him that he, St. John, had left his body resolved into earth, 
upon the earth, and that Christ and the Virgin alone had come with 
their bodies into Heaven. 


Both heaven and earth copartners in its toil, 
And with lean abstinence, through many a year, 
Faded my brow, be destined to prevail 
Over the cruelty, which bars me forth 
Of the fair sheep-fold,’ where, a sleeping lamb, 
The wolves set on and fain had worried me; 
With other voice, and fleece of other grain, 
I shall forthwith return; and, standing up 
At my baptismal font, shall claim the wreath 
Due to the poet’s temples: for I there 
First enter’d on the faith, which maketh souls 
Acceptable to God: and, for its sake,? 
Peter had then circled my forehead thus. 

Next from the squadron, whence had issued forth 
The first fruit of Christ’s vicars on the earth, 
Toward us moved a light, at view whereof 
My Lady, full of gladness, spake to me: 

“Lo! lo! behold the peer of mickle might, 
That makes Galicia throng’d with visitants.” 3 

As when the ring-dove by his mate alights; 
In circles, each about the other wheels, 

And, murmuring, coos his fondness: thus saw I 
One, of the other * great and glorious prince, 
With kindly greeting, hail’d; extolling, both, 
Their heavenly banqueting: but when an end 


] F e’er the sacred poem, that hath made 


Florence, difficulty of the journey, by the rough- 
ness and barrenness of those parts, and 
by the incursions of the Moors, who 


made captives many of the pilgrims.— 


For the sake of 


8 “ Galicia throng’d with visitants.” 
At the time_that the sepulchre of the 
apostle St. James was discovered, the 
devotion for that place extended itself 
not only over all Spain, but even round 
about to foreign nations. Multitudes 
from all parts of the world came to vist 
it. Many others were deterred by the 


The canons of St. Eloy, afterward (the 
precise time is not known), with a de- 
sire of remedying these evils, built, in 
many places along the whole road, 
which reached as far as to France, hos- 
pitals for the reception of the pilgrims. 

* “One, of the other.” St. Peter and 
St. James. 


PARADISE 


Was to their gratulation, silent, each, 
Before me sat they down, so burning bright, 
I could not look upon them. Smiling then, 
Beatrice spake: ‘O life in glory shrined! 
Who? didst the largess of our kingly court 
Set down with faithful pen; let now thy voice, 
Of hope the praises, in this height resound. 
For well thou know’st, who figurest it as oft, 
As Jesus, to ye three, more brightly shone.’: 
“Lift up thy head; and be thou strong in trust: 
For that, which hither from the mortal world 
Arriveth, must be ripen’d in our beam.” 
Such cheering accents from the second flame® 
Assured me; and mine eyes I lifted up’ 
Unto the mountains, that had bow’d them late 
With over-heavy burden. “ Sith our Liege 
Wills of his grace, that thou, or e’er thy death, 
In the most secret council with his lords 
Shouldst be confronted, so that having view’d 
The glories of our court, thou mayst therewith 
Thyself, and all who hear, invigorate 
With hope, that leads to blissful end; declare, 
What is that hope? how it doth flourish in thee? 


And whence thou hadst it?” Thus, proceeding still, 


The second light: and she, whose gentle love 
My soaring pennons in that lofty flight 
Escorted, thus preventing me, rejoin’d: 

“ Among her sons, not one more full of hope, 
Hath the church militant: so ’tis of him 
Recorded in the sun, whose liberal orb 
Enlighteneth all our tribe: and ere his term 
Of warfare, hence permitted he is come, 
From Egypt to Jerusalem,® to see. 

The other points, both which ® thou hast inquired. 
Not for more knowledge, but that he may tell 


389 


8 ** Who.’ The Epistle of St. James the hills, from whence cometh my 


is here attributed to the elder apostle help.”,—Psalm cxxi. 1. 


From 


of that name, whose shrine was at Com- 8 “ From Egypt ae erusalem. 
postella, in Galicia. the lower world to Heaven. | é 
®* The second flame.” St. James. » “ Both which.”? One point Beatrice 


7™“T lifted up.” I looked up to the has herself answered: ‘‘ how that 


hope 


€ 
apostles. “ I will lift up mine eyes unto flourishes in him.’”’ The other two re- 


main for Dante to resolve. 


39° 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


How dear thou hold’st the virtue; these to him 
Leave I: for he may answer thee with ease, 
And without boasting, so God give him grace.” 
Like to the scholar, practised in his task, 
Who, willing to give proof of diligence, 
Seconds his teacher gladly; “ Hope,” said I, 
“Ts of the joy to come a sure expectance, 
The effect of grace divine and merit preceding. 
This light from many a star, visits my heart; 


But flow’d to me, the first, from him who sang 


The songs of the Supreme; himself supreme 

Among his tuneful brethren. ‘Let all hope 

In thee,’ so spake his anthem, ‘ who have known 

Thy name;’ and, with my faith, who know not that? 

From thee, the next, distilling from his spring, 

In thine epistle, fell on me the drops 

So plenteously, that I on others shower 

The influence of their dew.” While as I spake, 

A lamping, as of quick and volley’d lightning, 

Within the bosom of that mighty sheen? 

Play’d tremulous; then forth these accents breathed: 

“Love for the virtue, which attended me 

E’en to the palm, and issuing from the field, 

Glows vigorous yet within me; and inspires 

To ask of thee, whom also it delights, 

What promise thou from hope, in chief, dost win.” 
“Both scriptures, new and ancient,’ I replied, 

“Propose the mark (which even now I view) 

For souls beloved of God. Isaias™ saith, 

‘ That, in their own land, each one must be clad 

In twofold vesture;’ and their proper land 

Is this delicious life. In terms more full, 

And clearer far, thy brother’? hath set forth 

This revelation to us, where he tells 

Of the white raiment destined to the saints.” 

And, as the words were ending, from above, 

“ They hope in thee! ”’ first heard we cried: whereto 


; ee Gein be ite sheen.” The spirit covered me ithe ae tobe of righteous- 
oF St 


WD << 


ness.’’—Chap. 
saie? “He hath clothed me at Thy. Sting ” St. John in the 


with the peayllleedly of salvation, he hath Rev. vii. 9. 


PARADISE 


‘Answer’d the carols all. 


39t 


Amidst them next, 


A light of so clear amplitude emerged, 
That winter’s month were but a single day, 
Were such a crystal in the Cancer’s sign. 

_ Like as a virgin riseth up, and goes, 
And enters on the mazes of the dance; 
Though gay, yet innocent of worse intent, 
Than to do fitting. honor to the bride: 

So I beheld the new effulgence come 

Unto the other two, who in a ring 


Wheel’d, as became their rapture. 


In the dance, 


And in the song, it mingled. And the dame 
Held on them fix’d her looks; e’en as the spouse, 


Silent, and moveless. 


“ This'® is he, who lay 


Upon the bosom of our pelican: 
This he, into whose keeping, from the cross, 


‘The mighty charge was given.” 


Thus she spake; 


Yet therefore naught the more removed her sight 
From marking them: or e’er her words began, 
Or when they closed. As he, who looks intent, 
And strives with searching ken, how he may see 
The sun in his eclipse, and, through desire 

Of seeing, loseth power of sight; so I ** 

Peer’d on that last resplendence, while I heard: 
“Why dazzlest thou thine eyes in seeking that, 


Which here abides not? 


Earth my body is, 


In earth; and shall be, with the rest, so long, 

As till our number equal the decree 

Of the Most High. The two’ that have ascended, 
In this our blessed cloister, shine alone 


- With the two garments. 


So report below.” 


As when, for ease of labor, or to shun 
Suspected peril, at a whistle’s breath, 
The oars, erewhile dash’d frequent in the wave, 
All rest: the flamy circle at that voice 
So rested; and the mingling sound was still, 


18 “ This.” St. John, who reclined on 
the bosom of our Saviour, and to whose 
charge Jesus recommended his mother. 

14“ So I.”’ He looked so earnestly, 
to descry whether St. John were pres- 
ent there in body, or in spirit only; 
having had his doubts raised by that 


saying of our Saviour’s: “ If I will, that 
he tarry till I come, what is that to 


1% “*The two.” Christ and Mary, 
whom he has described in the last Canto 
but one, as rising above his sight. 


39% THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Which from the trinal band, soft-breathing, rose. 
I turn’d, but ah! how trembled in my thought, 
When, looking’ at my side again to see 

Beatrice, I descried her not; although, 

Not distant, on the happy coast she stood. 


CANTO XXVI 


ARGUMENT.—St. John examines our Poet touching Charity. Afterward 
Adam tells when he was created, and placed in the terrestrial para- 
dise ; how long he remained in that state; what was the occasion of 
his fall; when he was admitted into Heaven; and what language he 
spake. 


ITH dazzled eyes, whilst wondering I remain’d; 
Forth of the beamy flame,t which dazzled me, 
Issued a breath, that in attention mute 
Detain’d me; and these words it spake: “’Twere well, 
That, long as till thy vision, on my form 
O’erspent, regain its virtue, with discourse 
Thou compensate the brief delay. Say then, 
Beginning, to what point thy soul aspires: 
And meanwhile rest assured, that sight in thee 
Is but o’erpower’d a space, not wholly quench’d; 
Since thy fair guide and lovely, in her look 
Hath potency, the like to that, which dwelt 
In Ananias’ hand.” ? I answering thus: 
“Be to mine eyes the remedy, or late 
Or early, at her pleasure; for they were 
The gates, at which she enter’d, and did light 
Her never-dying fire. My wishes here 
Are centred: in this palace is the weal, 
That Alpha and Omega are, to all 
The lessons love can read me.” Yet again 
The voice, which had dispersed my fear when dazed 
With that excess, to converse urged, and spake: 
“ Behoves thee sift more narrowly thy terms; 
‘And say, who level’d at this scope thy bow.” 


1 The beamy flame.” St. Joh his hand on St. Paul, restored his sigh 
2“ Ananias’ hand.” Who, by pido Acts, ix. 17. ght, 


PARADISE 393 


“ Philosophy,” said I, “ hath arguments, 
And this place hath authority enough, 
To imprint in me such love: for, of constraint, 
Good, inasmuch as we perceive the good, 
Kindles our love; and in degree the more, 
As it comprises more of goodness in ’t. 
The essence then, where such advantage is, 
That each good, found without it, is naught else 
But of his light the beam, must needs attract 
The soul of each one, loving, who the truth 
Discerns, on which this proof is built. Such truth 
Learn I from him, who shows me the first love 
Of all intelligential substances 
Eternal: from his voice I learn, whose word 
Is truth; that of himself to Moses saith, 
‘I will make all my good before thee pass: ’ 
Lastly, from’thee I learn, who chief proclaim’st 
E’en at the outset ® of thy heralding, 
In mortal ears the mystery of heaven.” 
“Through human wisdom, and the authority 
Therewith agreeing,’ heard I answer’d, “ keep 
The choicest of thy love for God. But say, 
If thou yet other cords within thee feel’st, 
That draw thee toward him; so that thou report 
How many are the fangs, with which this love 
Is grappled to thy soul.” I did not miss, 
To what intent the eagle of our Lord * 
Had pointed his demand; yea, noted well 
The avowal which he led to; and resumed: 
“ All grappling bonds, that knit the heart to God, 
Confederate to make fast our charity. 5 
The being of the world; and mine own being; 
The death which He endured, that I should live; 
And that, which all the faithful hope, as I do; 
To the foremention’d lively knowledge join’d; 
Have from the sea of ill love saved my bark, 
And on the coast secured it of the right. 
As for the leaves,® that in the garden bloom, 


&** At the outset,” John, i. 1, etc. # “ The eagle of our Lord,” St. John, 
« The’ leaves.” Created beings. 


394 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


My love for them is great, as is the good 
_ Dealt by the eternal hand, that tends them all.” 

I ended: and therewith a song most sweet 
Rang through the spheres; and “ Holy! Holy! Holy!” 
Accordant with the rest, my lady sang. 

And as a sleep is broken and dispersed 

Through sharp encounter of the nimble light, 
With the eye’s spirit running forth to meet 

The ray, from membrane on to membrane urged; 
And the upstartled wight loathes that he sees; 
So, at his sudden waking, he misdeems 

Of all around him, till assurance waits 

On better judgment: thus the saintly dame 
Drove from before my eyes the motes away, 
With the resplendence of her own, that cast 
Their brightness downward, thousand miles below. 
Whence I my vision, clearer than before, 
Recover’d; and well-nigh astounded, ask’d 

Of a fourth light, that now with us I saw. 

And Beatrice: “ The first living soul,® 
That ever the first virtue framed, admires 
Within these rays his Maker.” Like the leaf, 
That bows its lithe top till the blast is blown; 
By its own virtue rear’d, then stands aloof: 

So I, the whilst she said, awe-stricken bow’d. 
Then eagerness to speak embolden’d me; 

And I began: “O fruit! that wast alone 
Mature, when first engender’d; ancient father! 
That doubly seest in every wedded bride 

Thy daughter, by affinity and blood; 

Devoutly as I may, I pray thee hold 

Converse with me: my will thou seest: and I, 
More speedily to hear thee, tell it not.” 

It chanceth oft some animal bewrays, 
Through the sleek covering of his furry coat, 
The fondness, that stirs in him, and conforms 
His outside seeming to the cheer within: 

And in like guise was Adam’s spirit moved 
_ 'To joyous mood, that through the covering shone, 
6 “ The first living soul.’”’ Adam. 


PARADISE 305 


Transparent, when to pleasure me it spake: 

“ No need thy will be told, which I untold 

Better discern, than thou whatever thing 

Thou hold’st most certain: for that will I see 

In Him, who is truth’s mirror; and Himself, 
Parhelion unto all things, and naught else, 

To Him. This wouldst thou hear: how long since, God 
Placed me in that high garden, from whose bounds 
She led me up this ladder, steep and long; 

What space endured my season of delight; 
Whence truly sprang the wrath that banish’d me; 
And what the language, which I spake and framed. 
Not that I tasted of the tree, my son, 

Was in itself the cause of that exile, 

But only my transgressing of the mark 
Assign’d me. There, whence’ at thy lady’s hest 
The Mantuan moved him, still was I debarr’d 
This council, till the sun had made complete, 

Four thousand and three hundred rounds and twice, 
His annual journey; and, through every light 

In his broad pathway, saw I him return, : 
Thousand save seventy times, the whilst I dwelt _ 
Upon the earth. The languageI diduse 

Was worn away, or ever Nimrod’s race 

Their unaccomplishable work began. 

For naught, that man inclines to, e’er was lasting; 
Left by his reason free, and variable 

As is the sky that sways him. That he speaks, 

Is nature’s prompting: whether thus, or thus, 

She leaves to you, as ye do most affect it. 

Ere I descended into hell’s abyss, 

El was the name on earth of the Chief Good, 
Whose joy enfolds me: Eli then ’twas call’d. 

And so beseemeth: for, in mortals, use 

Is as the leaf upon the bough: that goes, 

And other comes instead. Upon the mount 

Most high above the waters, all my life, 

Both innocent and guilty, did but reach 
™“ Whence.” That is, from L-mbo. tion to the time of his deliverance, 


See “Hell,” Canto ii. 53. Adam says which followed the death of Christ. 
that 5,232 years elapsed from his crea- 


396 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


From the first hour, to that which cometh next 
(As the sun changes quarter) to the sixth.” 


CANTO XXVII 


ARGUMENT.—St. Peter bitterly rebukes the covetousness of his suc- 
cessors in the Apostolic See, while all the heavenly host sympathize 
in his indignation; they then vanish upward. Beatrice bids Dante 
again cast his view below. Afterward they are borne into the ninth 
Heaven, of which she shows him the nature and properties; blaming 
the perverseness of man, who places his will on low and perishable 
things. 


TT HEN “Glory to the Father, to the Son, 
And to the Holy Spirit,” rang aloud 
Throughout all Paradise; that with the song 
My spirit reel’d, so passing sweet the strain. 
And what I saw was equal ecstasy: 
One universal smile it seem’d of all things; 
Joy past compare; gladness unutterable ; 
Imperishable life of peace and love; 
Exhaustless riches, and unmeasured bliss. 
Before mine eyes stood the four torches? lit: 
And that,? which first had come, began to wax 
In brightness, and, in semblance, such became, 
As Jove might be, if he and Mars were birds, 
And interchanged their plumes. Silence ensued, 
Through the blessed quire; by Him, who here appoints 
Vicissitude of ministry, enjoin’d; 
When thus I heard: “ Wonder not, if my hue 
Be changed; for, while I speak, these shalt thou see 
All in like manner change with me. My place 
He® who usurps on earth (my place, ay, mine, 
Which in the presence of the Son of God 
Is void), the same hath made my cemetery 
A common sewer of puddle and of blood: 
The more below his triumph, who from hence 
Malignant fell.” Such color, as the sun, 


21“ Four torches.” eh Peter, St. the planet Jupiter would, if it assumed 
James poe John, and Ada the sanguine appearance of Mars. 
as St. Peter, whe looked as 8 “ He.” Boniface VIII. 


PARADISE 307 


At eve or morning, paints an adverse cloud, 
Then saw I sprinkled over all the sky 

And as the unblemish’d dame, who, in herself 
Secure of censure, yet at bare report 

Of other’s failing, shrinks with maiden fear ; 

So Beatrice, in her semblance, changed: 

And such eclipse in heaven, methinks, was seen, 
When the Most Holy suffer’d. Then the words 
Proceeded, with voice, alter’d from itself 

So clean, the semblance did not alter more. 
“Not to this end was Christ’s spouse with my blood 
With that of Linus, and of Cletus,* fed; 

That she might serve for purchase of base gold: 
But for the purchase of this happy life, 

Did Sextus, Pius, and Calixtus bleed, 

And Urban;° they, whose doom was not without 
Much weeping seal’d. No purpose was of ours,® 
That on the right hand of our successors, _ 

Part of the Christian people should be set, 

And part upon their left; nor that the keys, 
Which were vouchsafed me, should for ensign serve 
Unto the banners, that do levy war 

On the baptized: nor I, for sigil-mark, 

Set upon sold and lying privileges: 

Which makes me oft to bicker and turn red. 

In shepherd’s clothing, greedy wolves” below 
Range wide o’er all the pastures. Arm of God! 
Why longer sleep’st thou? Cahorsines and Gascons® 
Prepare to quaff our blood. O good beginning! 
To what a vile conclusion must thou stoop. 

But the high providence, which did defend, 
Through Scipio, the world’s empery for Rome, 
Will not delay its succor: and thou, son, 


. see, in the second; an 


¢ “ Of Linus, and of Cletus.”? Bishops 
of Rome in the first_century. j 
6**Did Sextus, Pius, and Calixtus 
bleed, 
And Urban ———” 
The former two, bishops of the same 


the others, in 

the fourth century. ‘ 
6 “* No purpose was of ours.” We did 
not intend that our successors should 
take any part in the political divisions 
among Christians; or that my figure 
(the seal of St. Peter) should serve as 

Classics. Vol. 34—R 


a mark to authorize iniquitous grants 
and privileges. 

7 “ Wolves.” 

“Wolves shall succeed to_ teachers, 
iene wolves.”—Milton, ‘‘ Paradise 

ost,” b. xii. 508. 

8 “ Cahorsines and Gascons.” He al- 
ludes to Jacques d’Ossa, a_ native of 
Cahors, who filled the papal chair in 
1316, after it had been two years vacant, 
and assumed the name of John XXII, 
and to Clement V, a Gascon. 


398 


THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Who through thy mortal weight shalt yet again 
Return below, open thy lips, nor hide 


What is by me not hidden.” 


As a flood 


Of frozen vapors streams adown the air, 

What time the she-goat® with her skyey horn 
Touches the sun; so saw I there stream wide 
The vapors, who with us had linger’d late, 
And with glad triumph deck the ethereal cope. 
Onward my sight their semblances pursued ; 
So far pursued, as till the space between 

From its reach sever’d them: whereat the guide 
Celestial, marking me no more intent 

On upward gazing, said, “ Look down .and see 


What circuit thou hast compassed.” 
When I before had cast my view beneath, 


From the hour?® 


All the first region overpast I saw, 
Which from the midmost to the boundary winds, 
That onward, thence, from Gades," I beheld 
The unwise passage of Laértes’ son ; 
And hitherward the shore,?* where thou, Europa, 
Madest thee a joyful burden; and yet more 
Of this dim spot had seen, but that the sun,1* 
A constellation off and more, had ta’en 
His progress in the zodiac underneath. 
Then by the spirit, that doth never leave 
Its amorous dalliance with my lady’s looks, 
Back with redoubled ardor were mine eyes 
Led unto her: and from her radiant smiles, 
Whenas I turn’d me, pleasure so divine 
Did lighten on me, that whatever bait 
Or art or nature in the human flesh, 
Or in its limn’d resemblance, can combine 
Through greedy eyes to take the soul withal, 


Were, to her beauty, nothing. 


® “The she-goat.”” When the sun is 
in Capricorn. ‘ 

10“ From the hour.” Since he had 
Jast looked (see Canto xxii.) ‘he per- 
ceived that he thad passed from the 
meridian .circle to the ‘eastern horizon; 
the half of our hemisphere, anda quar- 
ter of the heaven. 

11“ From Gades.” See “‘ Hell,’’ Can- 
to xxvi. 106. 


Its boon influence 


12 The shore.” Phoenicia, where 
Europa, the daughter of genor, 
mounted on the back .of Jupiter, in his 
shape of a bull. , 

18 “ The sun.” Dante was in the con- 


stellation of Gemini, and the sun in 


Aries. There was, therefore, part of 
those two constellations, and the whole 
of Taurus, between -them. 


From the fair nest of Leda* rapt me forth, 
And wafted on into the swiftest heaven. 

What place for entrance Beatrice chose, 
I may not say; so uniform was all, 
Liveliest and loftiest. She my secret wish 
Divined; and, with such gladness, that God’s love 
Seem’d from her visage shining, thus began: 
“ Here is the goal, whence motion on his race 
Starts: motionless the centre, and the rest 
All moved around. Except the soul divine, 
Place in this heaven is none; the soul divine, 
Wherein the love, which ruleth o’er its orb, 
Is kindled, and the virtue, that it sheds: 
One circle, light and love, enclasping it, 
As this doth clasp the others; and to Him, 
Who draws the bound, its limit only known. 
Measured itself by none, it doth divide 
Motion to all, counted unto them forth, 
As by the fifth or half ye count forth ten. 
The vase, wherein time’s roots are plunged, thou seest 
Look elsewhere for the leaves. O mortal lust! 
That canst not lift thy head above the waves 
Which whelm and sink thee down. The will in man 
Bears goodly blossoms; but its ruddy promise 
Is, by the dripping of perpetual rain, 
Made mere abortion: faith and innocence 
Are met with but in babes; each taking leave, 
Ere cheeks with down are sprinkled: he, that fasts 
While yet a stammerer, with his tongue let loose 
Gluts every food alike in every moon: 
One, yet a babbler, loves and listens to 
His mother; but no sooner hath free use 
Of speech, that he doth wish her in her grave. 
So suddenly doth the fair child of him, 
Whose welcome is the morn and eve his parting, 
To negro blackness change her virgin white. 

“ Thou, to abate thy wonder, note, that none 
Bears rule in earth; and its frail family 


14“ The fair nest of Leda.’”? From was the mother of the twins, Castor 
the Gemini; thus called, because Leda and Pollux. 


400 ~ THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Are therefore wanderers. Yet before the date, 

When through the hundredth in his reckoning dropped, 
Pale January must be shoved aside 

From Winter’s calendar, these heavenly spheres 

Shall roar so loud, that fortune shall be fain *® 

To turn the poop, where she hath now the prow; 

So that the fleet run onward: and true fruit, 

Expected long, shall crown at last the bloom.” 


CANTO XXVIII 


ARGUMENT.—Still in the ninth Heaven, our Poetis permitted to beh 
the divine essence; and then sees,“in three hierarchies, the nine 
. Beatrice clears some difficulties which occur to 
him on this occasion. 


O she, who doth imparadise my soul, 

Had drawn the veil from off our present life, 

And bared the truth of poor mortality: 
When lo! as one who, in a mirror, spies 
The shining of a flambeau at his back, 
Lit sudden ere he deem of its approach, 
And turneth to resolve him, if the glass 
Have told him true, and sees the record faithful 
As note is to its metre; even thus, 
I well remember, did befall to me, 
Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love 
Had made the leash to take me. As I turn’d: 
And that which none, who in that volume looks, 
Can miss of, in itself apparent, struck 
My view; a point I saw, that darted light 
So sharp, no lid, unclosing, may bear up 
Against its keenness. The least star we ken 
From hence, had seem’d a moon; set by its side, 
As star by side of star. And so far off, 
Perchance, as is the halo from the light 
Which paints it, when most dense the vapor spreads; 
There wheel’d about the point a circle of fire, 

1% “Fortune shall be fain.” The which he vainly hoped would _ follow on 


commentators in general suppose that the arrival of the Emperor Henry VII 
our Poet here augurs that great reform in Italy. 


PARADISE ' 404 


More rapid than the motion which surrounds, 
Speediest, the world. Another this enring’d; 
And that a third; the third a fourth, and that 
A fifth encompass’d; which a sixth next bound; 
And over this, a seventh, following, reach’d 
Circumference so ample, that its bow, 

Within the span of Juno’s messenger, 
Had scarce been held entire. Beyond the seventh, 
Ensued yet other two. And every one, 
As more in number distant from the first, 
Was tardier in motion: and that glow’d 
With flame most pure, that to the sparkle of truth, 
Was nearest; as partaking most, methinks, 
Of its reality. The guide beloved 
Saw me in anxious thought suspense, and spake: 
“ Heaven and all nature hangs upon that point 
The circle thereto most conjoin’d observe; 
And know, that by intenser love its course 
Is, to this swiftness, wing’d.” To whom I thus: 
“Tt were enough; nor should I further seek, 
Had I but witness’d order, in the world 
Appointed, such as in these wheels is seen. 
But in the sensible world such difference is, 
That in each round shows more divinity, 
As each is wider from the centre. Hence, 
If in this wondrous and angelic temple, 
That hath, for confine, only light and love, 
My wish may have completion, I must know, 
Wherefore such disagreement is between 
The exemplar and its copy: for myself, 
Contemplating, I fail to pierce the cause.” 

“Tt is no marvel, if thy fingers foil’d 
Do leave the knot untied: so hard ’tis grown 
For want of tenting.” Thus she said: “ But take,” 
She added, “if thou wish thy cure, my words, 
And entertain them subtly. Every orb, 
Corporeal, doth proportion its extent 
Unto the virtue through its parts diffused. 
The greater blessedness preserves the more, 
The greater is the body (if all parts 


402 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Share equally) the more is to preserve. 

Therefore the circle, whose swift course enwheels 
The universal frame, answers to that 

Which is supreme in knowledge and in love. 

Thus by the virtue, not the seeming breadth 

Of substance, measuring, thou shalt see the heavens, 
Each to the intelligence that ruleth it, 

Greater to more, and smaller unto less, 

Suited in strict and wondrous harmony.” 

As when the north blows from his milder cheek 
A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air, 
Clear’d of the rack that hung on it before, 
Glitters; and, with his beauties all unveil’d, 

The firmament looks forth serene, and smiles: 
Such was my cheer, when Beatrice drove 
With clear reply the shadows back, and truth 
Was manifested, as a star in heaven. 

And when the words were ended, not unlike 
To iron in the furnace, every cirque, 
Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires: 

And every sparkle shivering to new blaze, 

In number? did outmillion the account 
Reduplicate upon the checker’d board. 
Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir, 
“ Hosanna,” to the fixed point, that holds, 
And shall forever hold them to their place, 
From everlasting, irremovable. 

Musing awhile I stood: and she, who saw 

My inward meditations, thus began: 

“Tn the first circles, they, whom thou beheld’st 

Are seraphim and cherubim. Thus swift 

Follow their hoops, in likeness to the point, 

Near as they can, approaching; and they can 

The more, the loftier their vision. Those 

That round them fleet, gazing the Godhead next, 

Are thrones; in whom the first trine ends. And all 

Are blessed, even as their sight descends 

2“ In number.” The sparkles ex- oned one; for the —, te for the 

ceeded the number which would be third, four; and so went on doubling 


produced by the sixty-four squares of to the end of the account. 
a chess-board, if fex the first we reck- 


PARADISE 403 
Deeper into the truth, wherein rest is 

For every mind.. Thus happiness hath root 

In seeing, not in loving, which of sight 

Is aftergrowth. And of the seeing such 

The meed, as unto each, in due degree, 

Grace and good-will their measure have assign’d. 
The other trine, that with still opening buds 

In this eternal springtide blossom fair, 

Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram,? 
Breathe up in warbled melodies threefold 
Hosannas, blending ever; from the three, 
Transmitted, hierarchy of gods, for aye 
Rejoicing ; dominations first; next them, 
Virtues; and powers the third; the next to whom 
Are princedoms and archangels, with glad round 
To tread their festal ring; and last, the band 
Angelical, disporting in their sphere. 

All, as they circle in their orders, look 

Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail, 
That all with mutual impulse tend to God. 
These once a mortal view beheld. Desire, 

In Dionysius,’ so intensely wrought, 

That he, as I have done, ranged them; and named 
Their orders, marshal’d in his thought. From him, 
Dissentient, one refused his sacred reed. 

But soon as in this heaven his doubting eyes 
Were open’d, Gregory* at his error smiled. 

Nor marvel, that a denizen of earth 

Should scan such secret truth; for he had learnt © 
Both this and much beside of these our orbs, 
From an eye-witness to heaven’s mysteries.” 


3“ Fearless of bruising from the 
nightly ram.” Not injured, like the 
roductions of our spring, by the in- 
eance of autumn, when the constella- 
tion Aries rises at sunset. Me eee 

8 “ Dionysius.” The Areopagite, in 
his book ‘‘ De Ccelesti Hierarchia.”’ 

« “ Gregory.” Gregory the Great. 

6 “He had learnt.” Dionysius, he 
says, had learnt from St. Paul. It is 
almost unnecessary to add that the 
book above referred to, which goes 
under his name, was the production of 
a later age. In Bishop Bull’s seventh 
sermon, which treats of the different 


degrees of beatitude in Heaven, there 
is much that resembles what _is said_on 
the same subject by our Poet. The 
learned prelate, however, appears a 
little inconsistent, when, after having 
blamed Dionysius the Areopagite, ‘‘ for 
reckoning up exactly the several orders 
of the angelical hierarchy, as if he had 
seen a muster of the Saemeees t | host be- 
fore his eyes ” (v. i. p. 313), he himself 
then speaks rather more particularly 
of the several orders in the celestial 
hierarchy than he is warranted in doing 


by Holy Scripture. 


404 THE DIVINE COMEDY. 


CANTO XXIX 


ARGUMENT.—Beatrice beholds, in the mirror of divine truth, some doubts 
which had entered the mind of Dante. These she resolves; and 
then digresses into a vehement reprehension of certain theologians 
and preachers in those days, whose ignorance or avarice induced 
them to substitute their own inventions for the pure word of the 
Gospel. 


O longer, than what time Latona’s twins 
Cover’d of Libra and the fleecy star, 
Together both, girding the horizon hang; 

In even balance, from the zenith poised; 

Till from that verge, each, changing hemisphere, 
Part the nice level; e’en so brief a space 

Did Beatrice’s silence hold. A smile 

Sat painted on her cheek; and her fix’d gaze 

Bent on the point, at which my vision fail’d: 
When thus, her words resuming, she began: 

“T speak, nor what thou wouldst inquire demand; 
For I have mark’d it, where all time and place 
Are present. Not for increase to himself 

Of good, which may not be increased, but forth 
To manifest his glory by its beams; 

Inhabiting his own eternity, 

Beyond time’s limit or what bound soe’er 

To circumscribe his being; as he will’d, 

Into new natures, like unto himself, 

Eternal love unfolded: nor before, 

As 1f in dull inaction, torpid, lay, 

For, not in process of before or aft, 

Upon these waters moved the Spirit of God. 
Simple and mix’d, both form and substance, forth 
To perfect being started, like three darts 

Shot from a bow three-corded. And as ray 

In crystal, glass, and amber, shines entire, 

F’en at the moment of its issuing; thus 

Did, from the eternal Sovran, beam entire 

His threefold operation, at one act 

Produced coeval. Yet, in order, each 

Created his due station knew: those highest, 


PARADISE ~ 


405 


Who pure intelligence were made; mere power, - 
The lowest; in the midst, bound with strict league, 
Intelligence and power, unsever’d bond. 

Long tract of ages by the angels past, 

Ere the creating of another world, 

Described on Jerome’s pages,’ thou hast seen. 

But that what I disclose to thee is true, 

Those penmen,? whom the Holy Spirit moved 

In many a passage of their sacred book, 

Attest; as thou by diligent search shalt find: 

And reason,’ in some’ sort, discerns the same, 
Who scarce would grant the heavenly ministers, 
Of their perfection void, so long a space. 

Thus when and where these spirits of love were made, 
Thou know’st, and how: and, knowing, hast allay’d 
Thy thirst, which from the tripie question‘ rose. 
Ere one had reckon’d twenty, e’en so soon, 

Part of the angels fell: and in their fall, 
Confusion to your elements ensued. 

The others kept their station: and this task, 
Whereon thou look’st, began, with such delight, 
That they surcease not ever, day nor night, 

Their circling. Of that fatal lapse the cause 

Was the curst pride of him, whom thou hast seen 
Pent with the world’s incumbrance. Those, whom here 
Thou seest, were lowly to confess themselves 

Of his free bounty, who had made them apt 

For ministries so high: therefore their views 

Were, by enlightening grace and their own merit, 
Exalted; so that in their will confirm’d 

They stand, nor fear to fall. For do not doubt, 
But to receive the grace, which Heaven vouchsafes, 
Is meritorious, even as the soul 

With prompt affection welcometh the guest. 

Now, without further help, if with good heed 


Set see Jerome’s pages.”” St. Jerome 
had described the angels as created 
long before the rest of the universe: an 
opinion which Thomas Aquinas contro- 
verted; and the latter, as Dante thinks, 
had Scripture on his side. ; 

2 ‘Those penmen.’’ As in Gen. i. 1, 
and Ecclesiasticus, xviii. 1. a 
_ 8“ Reason.” The heavenly ministers 


(“‘ motort”’) would have existed to no 
purpose if they had been created before 
the corporeal world, which they were to 
govern. é 

“The triple question.” He had 
wished to know where, when, and how 
the angels had been created, and these 
three questions had been resolved. 


gob THE DIVINE COMEDY 


My words thy mind have treasured, thou henceforth 
This consistory round about mayst scan, / 
And gaze thy fill. But, since thou hast on earth 
Heard vain disputers, reasoners in the schools, 
Canvass the angelic nature, and dispute 

Its powers of apprehension, memory, choice; 
Therefore, ’tis well thou take from me the truth, 
Pure and without disguise; which they below, 
Equivocating, darken and perplex. 

“ Know thou, that, from the first, these substances, 

Rejoicing in the countenance of God, 

Have held unceasingly their view, intent 

Upon the glorious vision, from the which 
Naught absent is nor hid: where then no change 
Of newness, with succession, interrupts, 
Remembrance, there, needs none to gather up 
Divided thought and images remote. 

“ So that men, thus at variance with the truth, 
Dream, though their eyes be open; reckless some 
Of error; others well aware they err, 

To whom more guilt and shame are justly due. 

Each the known track of sage philosophy 

Deserts, and has a by-way of his own: 

So much the restless eagerness to shine. 

And love of singularity, prevail. 

Yet this, offensive as it is, provokes 

Heaven’s anger less, than when the book of God 

Is forced to yield to man’s authority, 

Or from its straightness warp’d: no reckoning made | 
What blood the sowing of it in the world 

Has cost; what favor for himself he wins, 

Who meekly clings to it. The aim of all 

Is how to shine: e’en they, whose office is 

To preach the gospel, let the gospel sleep, 

And pass their own inventions off instead. 

One tells, how at Christ’s suffering the wan moon 
‘Bent back her steps, and shadow’d o’er the sun 
With intervenient disc, as she withdrew: 
Another, how the light shrouded itself 

Within its tabernacle, and left dark 


PARADISE 


The Spaniard, and the Indian, with the Jew. 
Such fables Florence in her pulpit hears, 
Bandied about more frequent, than the names 
Of Bindi and of Lapi® in her streets. 

The sheep, meanwhile, poor witless ones, return 
From pasture, fed with wind: and what avails 
For their excuse, they do not see their harm? 
Christ said not to his first conventicle, 

‘Go forth and preach impostures to the world,’ 


But gave them truth to build on; and the sound 


Was mighty on their lips: nor needed they, 
Beside the Gospel, other spear or shield, 

To aid them in their warfare for the faith. 

The preacher now provides himself with store 
Of jests and gibes; and, so there be no lack 

Of laughter, while he vents them, his big cow! 
Distends, and he has won the meed he sought: 
Could but the vulgar catch a glimpse the while 
Of that dark bird which nestles in his hood, 


They scarce would wait to hear the blessing said, 


Which now the dotards hold in such esteem, 
That every counterfeit, who spreads abroad 
The hands of holy promise, finds a throng 
Of credulous fools beneath. Saint Anthony 
Fattens with this his swine,® and others worse 
Than swine, who diet at his lazy board, 
Paying with unstamped metal? for their fare, 

“ But (for we far have wander’d) let us seek 
The forward path again; so as the way 
Be shorten’d with the time. No mortal tongue, 
Nor thought of man, hath ever reach’d so far, 
That of these naturesshe might count the tribes. 
What Daniel § of their thousands hath reveal’d, 
With finite number, infinite conceals. 


407 


The fountain, at whose source these drink their beams, 


§** Of Bindi and of Lapi.”” Common 1297, they obtained the dignity and 


mames of men at Florence. 
@ ‘‘ Fattens with this his swine.” On 


peuilanrs of an independent congrega- 
on 


see sale of these blessings, the Souther ™“ With unstamped metal.” With 
Anthony supported themselves false indulgences. 

end their paramours. From behind the “ Daniel.” “Thousand thousands 

swine of gr A Anthony, our Poet levels thet Siete unto him, and ten Maer rs~ 4 


a blow at the obj 


enmity, Boniface VIII, from whom, in —Dan. vii. 10, 


oa of his inveterate times ten thousand stood before him.” 


A408 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


With light supplies them in as many modes, 
As there are splendors that it shines on: each 
According to the virtue it conceives, 

Differing in love and sweet affection. 

Look then how lofty and how huge in breadth 
The eternal might, which, broken and dispersed 
Over such countless mirrors, yet remains 
Whole in itself and one, as at the first.” 


CANTO XXX 


'(ARGUMENT.—Dante is taken up with Beatrice into the Empyrean; and 
there having his sight strengthened by her aid, and by the virtue 
derived from looking on the River of Light, he sees the triumph 
of the angels and of the souls of the blessed. 


OON’S fervid hour perchance six thousand miles ? 
e From hence is distant; and the shadowy cone 
Almost to level on our earth declines; 
When, from the midmost of this blue abyss, 
By turns some star is to our vision lost. 
And straightway as the handmaid of the sun 
Puts forth her radiant brow, all, light by light, 
Fade; and the spangled firmament shuts in, 
F’en to the loveliest of the glittering throng. 
Thus vanish’d gradually from my sight 
The triumph, which plays ever round the point, 
That overcame me, seeming (for it did) 
Engirt ? by that it girdeth. Wherefore love, 
With loss of other object, forced me bend 
Mine eyes on Beatrice once again. 
If all, that hitherto is told of her, 
Were in one praise concluded, ’twere too weak 
To furnish out this turn. Mine eyes did look 
On beauty, such, as I believe in sooth, 
Not merely to exceed our human; but, 


2“ Six thousand miles.” He com- part of it inhabited by the Poet, is 
ares the vanishing of the vision to the about to disappear. 

ading away of the stars at dawn, when 2“ Engirt.” Appearing to be encom. 
it is noon-day 6,000 miles off, and the passed by these angelic bands, which 
shadow, formed by the earth over the are in reality encompassed by it. 


PARADISE 409 


That save its Maker, none can to the full 
Enjoy it. At this point o’erpower’d I fail; 
Unequal to my theme; as never bard 

Of buskin or of sock hath fail’d before. 

For as the sun doth to the feeblest sight, 
K’en so remembrance of that witching smile 
Hath dispossessed my spirit of itself. 

Not from that day, when on this earth I first 
-Beheld her charms, up to that view of them, 
Have I with song applausive ever ceased 

To follow; but now follow them no more; 
My course here bounded, as each artist’s is, 
When it doth touch the limit of his skill. 

She (such as I bequeath her to the bruit 
Of louder trump than mine, which hasteneth on 
Urging its arduous matter to the close) 

Her words resumed, in gesture and in voice 
Resembling one accustom’d to command: 

“ Forth * from the last corporeal are we come 
Into the heaven, that is unbodied light; 
Light intellectual, replete with love; 

Love of true happiness, replete with joy; 

Joy, that transcends all sweetness of delight. 
Here shalt thou look on either mighty host * 
Of Paradise; and one in that array, 

Which in the final judgment that shalt see.” 
As when the lightning, in a sudden spleen 
Unfolded, dashes from the blinding eyes 

The visive spirits, dazzled and bedimm’d; 

So, round about me, fulminating streams 

Of living radiance play’d, and left me swathed 
And veil’d in dense impenetrable blaze. 

Such weal is in the love, that stills this heaven; 
For its own flame® the torch thus fitting ever, 
So sooner to my listening ear had come 
The brief assurance, than I understood 
New virtue into me infused, and sight 


® “Forth.” From the ninth sphere souls; the latter in that form which 
to the Empyrean, which is mere light, they will have at the last, . ‘ 
4“ Kither mighty host.” Of angels, | 5 “ For its own flame.” Thus dispos- 
that remained faithful, and of beatified ts 8 the spirits to receive its own beatific 
ight. 


410 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Kindled afresh, with vigor to sustain 
Excess of light however pure. I look’d; 
And, in the likeness of a river, saw 
_. +s, +@Light flowing, from whose amber-seeming waves 
Flash’d up effulgence, as they glided on 
*Twixt banks, on either side, painted with spring, 
Incredible how fair: and, from the tide, 
There ever and anon, outstarting, flew 
Sparkles instinct with life; and in the flowers 
Did set them, like to rubies chased in gold: 
Then, as if drunk with odors, plunged again 
Into the wondrous flood; from which, as one 
Re-enter’d, still another rose. ‘“ The thirst 
Of knowledge high, whereby thou art inflamed, 
To search the meaning of what here thou seest, 
The more it warms thee, pleases me the more, 
But first behoves thee of this water drink, 
Or e’er that longing be allay’d.” So spake 
The day-star of mine eyes: then thus subjoin’d: 
“This stream; and these, forth issuing from its gulf, 
And dividing back, a living topaz each; 
With all this laughter on its bloomy shores; 
Are but a preface, shadowy of the truth 
They emblem: not that, in themselves, the things 
Are crude; but on thy part is the defect, 
For that thy views not yet aspire so high.” 

Never did babe that had outslept his wont, 
Rush, with such eager straining, to the milk, 
As I toward the water; bending me, 
To make the better mirrors of mine eyes 
In the refining wave: and as the eaves 
Of mine eyelids did drink of it, forthwith 
Seem’d it unto me turn’d from length to round. 
Then as a troop of maskers, when they put 
Their vizors off, look other than before ; 
The counterfeited semblance thrown aside: 
So into greater jubilee were changed 
Those flowers and sparkles; and distinct I saw, 
Before me, either court of heaven display’d. _ 

O prime enlightener! thou who gavest me strength 


PARADISE 411 


On the high triumph of thy realm to gaze; 
Grant virtue now to utter what I kenn’d. 

There is in heaven a light, whose goodly shine 
Makes the Creator visible to all 
Created, that in seeing him alone 
Have peace; and in a circle spreads so far, 
That the circumference were too loose a zone 
To girdle in the sun. All is one beam, 
Reflected from the summit of the first, 
That moves, which being hence and vigor takes. 
And as some cliff, that from the bottom eyes 
His image mirror’d in the crystal flood, 
As if to admire his brave apparelling 
Of verdure and of flowers; so, round about, 
Eying the light, on more than million thrones, 
Stood, eminent, whatever from our earth 
Has to the skies return’d. How wide the leaves, 
Extended to their utmost, of this rose, 
Whose lowest step embosoms such a space 
Of ample radiance! Yet, nor amplitude 
Nor height impeded, but my view with ease 
Took in the full dimensions of that joy. 
Near or remote, what there avails, where God 
Immediate rules, and Nature, awed, suspends 
Her sway? Into the yellow of the rose 
Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness, 
Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent 
Of praises to the never-wintering sun, 
As one, who fain would speak yet holds his peace, 
Beatrice led me; and, ‘‘ Behold,” she said, 
“This fair assemblage; stoles of snowy white, 
How numberless. The city, where we dwell, 
Behold how vast; and these our seats so throng’d, 
Few now are wanting here. In that proud stall, 
On which, the crown, already o’er its state 
Suspended, holds thine eyes—or e’er thyself 
Mayst at the wedding sup—shall rest the soul 
Of the great Harry,® he who, by the world 

' @“ Of the great Harry.” The Em- imperial ower three years seven 


eror Henry VII, who died in 1313. months and eighteen days from his first 
Freary, Count of Luxemburg, held the coronation to his death. He was a man 


4qi2 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Augustus hail’d, to Italy must come, 

Before her day be ripe. But ye are sick, 
And in your tetchy wantonness as blind, 

As is the bantling, that of hunger dies, 

And drives away the nurse. Nor may it be, 
That he,” who in the sacred forum sways, 
Openly or in secret, shall with him 

Accordant walk: whom God will not endure 
I’ the holy office long; but thrust him down 
To Simon Magus, where Alagna’s priest ° 
Will sink beneath him: such will be his meed.” 


CANTO XXXI 


ARGUMENT.—The Poet expatiates further on the aia vision a 
scribed in the last Canto. : 
that she has left him, and_that an_old mani 


proves to be St. Bernard ows him that hes has re- 
tfirped to he one € blessedness of 
the-Virgin Motker— 


N fashion, as a snow white rose, lay then 
Before my view the saintly multitude,* 
Which in his own blood Christ espoused. Meanwhile, 

That other host,? that soar aloft to gaze 
And celebrate his glory, whom they love, 
Hover’d around; and, like a troop of bees, 
Amid the vernal sweets alighting now, 
Now, clustering, where their fragrant labor glows, 
Flew downward to the mighty flower, or rose 
From the redundant petals, streaming back 
Unto the steadfast dwelling of their joy, 
Faces had they of flame, and wings of gold: 
The rest was whiter than the driven snow; 
And, as they flitted down into the flower, 


wise and just and gracious; brave and 7“He.” Pope Clement V. See 
intrepid in arms; a man of honor and Canto XXVii. 53. 

a good Catholic; and although by his “ Alagna’s priest.” Pope Boniface 
lineage he was of no great condition, yet VIL ‘‘ Hell,” Canto xix. 79. 

he was of a magnanimous heart, much 1“ The saintly multitude. Human 


‘feared and héld in awe; and if he had souls advanced to this state of glory 
lived longer, would have done the through the meditation of Christ 
greatest things. au Phat other host.””? The angels, 


PARADISE 413 


From range to range, fanning their plumy loins, 
Whisper’d the peace and ardor, which they won 
From that soft winnowing. Shadow none, the vast 
Interposition of such numerous flight 
Cast, from above, upon the flower, or view 
Obstructed aught. For, through the universe, 
Wherever merited, celestial light 
Glides freely, and no obstacle prevents. 
All there, who reign in safety and in bliss, 
Ages long past or new, on one sole mark 
Their love and vision fix’d. O trinal beam 
Of individual star, that charm’st them thus! 
Vouchsafe one glance to gild our storm below.’ 
If the grim brood,* from Arctic shores that roam’d, 
(Where Helice ® forever, as she wheels, 
Sparkles a mother’s fondness on her son), 
Stood in mute wonder ’mid the works of Rome, 
When to their view the Lateran arose 
In greatness more than earthly; I, who then 
From human to divine had passed, from time 
Unto eternity, and out of Florence 
To justice and to truth, how might I choose 
But marvel too? ’*Twixt gladness and amaze, 
In sooth no will had I to utter aught, 
Or hear. And, as a pilgrim, when he rests 
Within the temple of his vow, looks round 
In breathless awe, and hopes some time to tell 
Of all its goodly state; e’en so mine eyes 
Coursed up and down along the living light, 
Now low, and now aloft, and now around, 
Visiting every step. Looks I beheld, 
Where charity in soft persuasion sat ; 
Smiles from within, and radiance from above; 
And, in each gesture, grace and honor high. 
So roved my ken, and in its general form 
All Paradise survey’d: when round I turn’d 
With purpose of my lady to inquire 


8“ To gild our storm below.” To 5 Ffelice.” Callistro, and her son 
guide us through the dangers to which Arcas, changed into the constellation of 
we are exposed in this tempestuous life. the Greater Bear and Arctophylax, or 

« “Tf the grim brood.” The northern _ Bodtes. 


hordes who invaded Rome. 


414 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


Once more of things, that held my thought suspense, 

But answer found from other than I ween’ds 

For, Beatrice, when I thought to see, 

I saw instead a senior, at my side, 

Robed, as the rest, in glory. Joy benign 

Glow’d in his eye, and o’er his cheek diffused, - 

With gestures such as spake a father’s love. 

And, “ Whither is she vanish’d?” straight I ask’d. 
“By Beatrice summon’d,” he replied, 

“T come to aid thy wish. Looking aloft 

To the third circle from the highest, there 

Behold her on the throne, wherein her merit 

Hath placed her.” Answering not, mine eyes I raised, 

And saw her, where aloof she sat, her brow 

A wreath reflecting of eternal beams. 

Not from the centre of the sea so far 

Unto the region of the highest thunder, 

As was my ken from hers; and yet the form 

Came through that medium down, unmix’d and pure. 
“O lady! thou in whom my hopes have rest; 

‘Who, for my safety, hast not scorn’d, in hell 

To leave the traces of thy footsteps mark’d; 

For all mine eyes have seen, I to thy power 

And goodness, virtue owe and grace. Of slave 

Thou hast to freedom brought me: and no means, 

For my deliverance apt, hast left untried. 

Thy liberal bounty still toward me keep: 

That, when my spirit, which thou madest whole, 

Is loosen’d from this body, it may find 

Favor with thee.” So I my suit preferr’d: 

And she, so distant, as appear’d, look’d down, 

And smiled; then toward the eternal fountain turn’d. 
And thus the senior, holy and revered: 

“ That thou at length mayst happily conclude 

Thy voyage (to which end I was despatch’d, 

By supplication moved and holy love), 

Let thy upsoaring vision range, at large, 

This garden through: for so, by ray divine 

Kindled, thy ken a higher flight shall mount; 

And from heaven’s queen, whom fervent I adore, 


PARADISE 


415 


All gracious aid befriend us; for that I 


Am her own faithful Bernard.” ® 


Like a wight, 


Who haply from Croatia wends to see 
Our Veronica; and the while ’tis shown, 
Hangs over it with never-sated gaze, 

And, all that he hath heard revolving, saith 


Unto himself in thought: 


“ And didst thou look 


F’en thus, O Jesus, my true Lord and God? 


And was this semblance thine? ” 


So gazed I then 


Adoring; for the charity of him,° 

Who musing, in this world that peace enjoy’d, 
Stood lively before me. “ Child of grace!” 
Thus he began: “thou shalt not knowledge gain 
Of this glad being, if thine eyes are held 

Still in this depth below. But search around 
The circles, to the furthest, till thou spy 

Seated in state, the queen,® that of this realm 


Is sovran.”’ 


Straight mine eyes I raised; and bright, 


As, at the birth of morn, the eastern clime 
Above the horizon, where the sun declines; 

So to mine eyes, that upward, as from vale 
To mountain sped, at the extreme bound, a part 
Excell’d in lustre all the front opposed. 

And as the glow burns ruddiest o’er the wave, 
That waits the ascending team, which Phaéton 
Ill knew to guide, and on each part the light 
Diminish’d fades, intensest in the midst; 

So burn’d the peaceful oriflamb, and slack’d 
On every side the living flame decay’d. 

And in that midst their sportive pennons waved 
Thousands of angels; in resplendence each 


Distinct, and quaint adornment. 


6 * Bernard.” St. Bernard, the ven- 
erable Abbot of Clairvaux, and the 
great promoter of the Second Crusade 
who died A.D. 1153, in his sixty-third 
ear. His sermons have even been pre- 
erred to all the productions of the 
ancients, and the author has been 
termed the last of the fathers of the 
Church. It is uncertain whether they 
were not delivered originally in the 
French tongue. That the part he acts 
in the present poem should be assigned 
to him, appears somewhat remarkable, 
when we consider that he severely cen- 


At their glee 


sured the new festival established in 
honor of the Immaculate Conception of 
the Virgin, and opposed the doctrine it- 
self with the greatest vigor, as it sup- 
posed her being honored with a_priv- 
ilege which belonged to Christ alone. 

7“ Our Veronica.” A copy in minia- 
ture of the picture of Christ, which is 
supposed to have been miraculously 
imprinted upon 4 handkerchief pre- 
served in the church of St. Peter at 


ome. 
8“ Him.” St. Bernard. | 
®“*The queen.” The Virgin Mary. 


416 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And carol, smiled the Lovely One of Heaven, 

That joy was in the eyes of all the blessed. 
Had I a tongue in eloquence as rich, 

As is the coloring in fancy’s loom, 

’Twere all too poor to utter the least part 

Of that enchantment. When he saw mine eyes 

Intent on her, that charm’d him; Bernard gazed 

With so exceeding fondness, as infused 

Ardor into my breast, unfelt before. 


CANTO XXXII 


ARGUMENT.—St. Bernard shows hi ir_several throne her 
blessed sou S$; explains to him 
that their places are assigned them by grace, and not according to 


merit; and, lastly, tells him that if he would obtain power to descry 
what remained of the heavenly vision, he must unite with him in 
supplication to Mary. 


REELY the sage, though wrapt in musings high, 
HK Assumed the teacher’s part, and mild began: 
“The wound, that Mary closed, she’ open’d first, 
Who sits so beautiful at Mary’s feet. 
The third in order, underneath her, lo! 
Rachel with Beatrice: Sarah next; 
Judith; Rebecca; and the gleaner-maid, 
Meek ancestress ? of him, who sang the songs 
Of sore repentance in his sorrowful mood. 
All, as I name them, down from leaf to leaf, 
Are, in gradation, throned on the rose. 
And from the seventh step, successively, 
Adown the breathing tresses of the flower, 
Still doth the file of Hebrew dames proceed. 
For these are a partition wall, whereby 
The sacred stairs are sever’d, as the faith 
In Christ divides them. On this part, where bloom 
Each leaf in full maturity, are set 
Such as in Christ, or e’er he came, believed. 
On the other, where an intersected space 


1“ She.” Eve. *“ Ancestress.”? Ruth, the ancestress of David. 


PARADISE 4x7 


Yet shows the semicircle void, abide 

All they, who look’d to Christ already come 

And as our Lady on her glorious stool, 

And they who on their stools beneath her sit, 

This way distinction make; e’en so on his, 

The mighty Baptist that way marks the line 

(He who endured the desert, and the pains 

Of martyrdom, and, for two years,? of hell, 

Yet still continued holy), and beneath, 

Augustin;* Francis;® Benedict;* and the rest, 

Thus far from round to round. So Heaven’s decree 

Forecasts, this garden equally to fill, 

With faith in either view, past or to come. 

Learn too, that downward from the step, which cleaves, 

Midway, the twain compartments, none there are 

Who place obtain for merit of their own, 

But have through others’ merit been advanced, 

On set conditions; spirits all released, 

Ere for themselves they had the power to chuse. 

And, if thou mark and listen to them well, 

Their childish looks and voice declare as much. 
“ Here, silent as thou art, I know thy doubt; 

And gladly will I loose the knot, wherein 

Thy subtile thoughts have bound thee. From this realm 

Excluded, chance no entrance here may find; 

No more than hunger, thirst, or sorrow can. 

A law immutable hath stablish’d all; 

Nor is there aught thou seest, that doth not fit, — 

Exactly, as the finger to the ring. 

It is not, therefore, without cause, that these 

O’erspeedy comers to immortal life, 

Are different in their shares of excellence. 

Our Sovran Lord, that settleth this estate 

In love and in delight so absolute, 

That wish can dare no further, every soul, 

Created in his joyous sight to dwell, 

With grace, at pleasure, variously endows. 


3**Two years.” The time that elapsed § writer who has been mentioned before, 
between the death of the Baptist and Canto x. 117 


his redemption by_the death of Christ. aie Francis.” See Canto xi. 
4“ Augustin.” Bishop of Lo in 6 ** Benedict.” See Canto xxii, 
the fourth century; the celebrated 


418 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


And for a proof the effect may well suffice. 
And ’tis moreover most expressly mark’d 
In holy Scripture, where the twins are said 
To have struggled in the womb. Therefore, as grace 
Inweaves the coronet, so every brow 
Weareth its proper hue of orient light. 
And merely in respect to his prime gift, 
Not in reward of meritorious deed, 
Hath each his several degree assign’d. 
In early times with their own innocence 
More was not wanting, than the parents’ faith, 
To save them: those first ages past, behoved 
That circumcision in the males should imp 
The flight of innocent wings: but since the day 
Of grace hath come, without baptismal rites 
In Christ accomplish’d, innocence herself 
Must linger yet below. Now raise thy view 
Unto the visage most resembling Christ: 
For, in her splendor only, shalt thou win 
The power to look on him.” Forthwith I saw 
Such floods of gladness on her visage shower’d, 
From holy spirits, winging that profound; 
That, whatsoever I had yet beheld, 
Had not so much suspended me with wonder, 
Or shown me such similitude of God. 
And he, who had to her descended, once, 
On earth, now hail’d in heaven; and on poised wing, 
“ Ave, Maria! Gratia Plena!” sang: 
To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court, 
From all parts answering, rang: that holier joy 
Brooded the deep serene. “ Father revered! 
Who deign’st, for me, to quit the pleasant place 
Wherein thou sittest, by eternal lot; 
Say, who that angel is, that with such glee 
Beholds our queen, and so enamour’d glows 
Of her high beauty, that all fire he seems.” 

So I again resorted to the lore 
Of my wise teacher, he, whom Mary’s charms 
Embellish’d, as the sun the morning star; 
Who thus in answer spake: “In him are summ’d, 


PARADISE * 419 


Whate’er of buxomness and free delight 

May be in spirit, or in angel, met: 

And so beseems: for that he bare the palm 
Down unto Mary, when the Son of God 
Vouchsafed to clothe him in terrestrial weeds. 
Now let thine eyes wait heedful on my words; 
And note thou of this just and pious realm 
The chiefest nobles. Those, highest in bliss, 
The twain, on each hand next our empress throned, 
Are as it were two roots unto this rose: 

He to the left, the parent, whose rash taste 
Proves bitter to this seed; and, on the right, 
That ancient father of the holy church, 

Into whose keeping Christ did give the keys 
Of this sweet flower; near whom behold the seer,’ 
That, ere he died, saw all the grievous times 
Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails 
Was won. And, near unto the other, rests 
The leader, under whom, on manna, fed 

The ungrateful nation, fickle and perverse. 

On the other part, facing to Peter, lo! 

Where Anna sits, so well content to look 

On her loved daughter, that with moveless eye 
She chants the loud hosanna: while, opposed 
To the first father of your mortal kind, 

Is Lucia,® at whose hest thy lady sped, 

When on the edge of ruin closed thine eye. 

“ But (for the vision hasteneth to an end) 
Here break we off, as the good workman doth, 
That shapes the cloak according to the cloth; 
And to the primal love our ken shall rise; 

That thou mayst penetrate the brightness, far 

As sight can bear thee. Yet, alas! in sooth 

Beating thy pennons, thinking to advance, 

Thou backward fall’st. Grace then must first be gain’d, 
Her grace, whose might can help thee. Thou in prayer 
Seek her: and, with affection, whilst I sue, 

Attend, and yield me all thy heart.” He said; 

And thus the saintly orison began. 


¥“ The seer.” St. John. 8“ Tucia.”? See “Hell,” Canto ii, 97, 
and “ Purgatory,” Canto ix. 50, 


420 THE DIVINE COMEDY. 


CANTO XXXIII 


ARGUMENT.—St. Bernard supplicates the Virgin Mary that Dante may 
have grace given him to contemplate the brightness of the Divine 
Majesty, which is accordingly granted; and Dante then himself 
prays to God for ability to show forth some part of the celestial 


glory in his writings. Lastly, he is admitted to a glimpse of the. 


reat mystery; the Trinity, and the Union of Man with God. 


VIRGIN mother, daughter of thy Son! 

() Created beings all in lowliness 
Surpassing, as in height above them all; 

Term by the eternal counsel preordain’d ; 

Ennobler of thy nature, so advanced 

In thee, that its great Maker did not scorn, 

To make himself his own creation; 

For in thy womb rekindling shone the love 

Reveal’d, whose genial influence makes now 

‘This flower to germin in eternal peace: 

Here thou to us, of charity and love, 

Art, as the noon-day torch; and art, beneath, 

To mortal men, of hope a living spring. 

So mighty art thou, lady, and so great, 

That he, who grace desireth, and comes not 

To thee for aidance, fain would have desire 

Fly without wings. Not only him, who asks, 

Thy bounty succors; but doth freely oft 

Forerun the asking. Whatsoe’er may be 

Of excellence in creature, pity. mild, 

Relenting mercy, large munificence, 

Are all combined in thee. Here kneeleth one, 

Who of all spirits hath review’d the state, 

From the world’s lowest gap unto this height. 

Suppliant to thee he kneels, imploring grace 

For virtue yet more high, to lift his ken 

Toward the bliss supreme. And I, who ne’er 

Coveted sight, more fondly, for myself, 

Than now for him, my prayers to thee prefer. 

(And pray they be not scant), that thou wouldst drive 

Each cloud of his mortality away, 

Through thine own prayers, that on the sovran joy 


PARADISE. 421 


Unveil’d he gaze. This yet, I pray thee, Queen, 

Who canst do what thou wilt; that in him thou 
Wouldst, after all he hath beheld, preserve 

Affection sound, and human passions quell. 

Lo! where, with Beatrice, many a saint 

Stretch their clasp’d hands, in furtherance of my suit. 

The eyes, that heaven with love and awe regards, 

Fix’d on the suitor, witness’d, how benign 

_ She looks on pious prayers: then fasten’d they 
On the everlasting light, wherein no eye 
Of creature, as may well be thought, so far 
Can travel inward. I, meanwhile, who drew 
Near to the limit, where all wishes end, 
The ardor of my wish (for so behoved), 
Ended within me. Beckoning smiled the sage, 
That I should look aloft: but, ere he bade, 
Already of myself aloft I look’d; 
For visual strength, refining more and more, 
Bare me into the ray authentical 
Of sovran light. Thenceforward, what I saw, 
Was not for words to speak, nor memory’s self 
To stand against such outrage on her skill. 

As one, who from a dream awaken’d, straight, 
All he hath seen forgets; yet still retains 
Impression of the feeling in his dream; 

E’en such am I: for all the vision dies, 

As ’twere, away; and yet the sense of sweet, 
That sprang from it, still trickles in my heart. 
Thus in the sun-thaw is the snow unseal’d; 
Thus in the winds on flitting leaves was lost 
The Sibyl’s sentence. O eternal beam! 
(Whose height what reach of mortal thought may soar?) 
Yield me again some little particle 

Of what thou then appearedst; give my tongue 
Power, but to leave one sparkle of thy glory, 
Unto the race to come, that shall not lose 

Thy triumph wholly, if thou waken aught 

Of memory in me, and endure to hear 

The record sound in this unequal strain. 


__ Such keenness from the living ray I met, 
Classics. Vol. 34—S' 4 


422 THE DIVINE COMEDY 


That, if mine eyes had turn’d away, methinks, 
I had been lost; but, so embolden’d, on 
I pass’d, as I remember, till my view 
Hover’d the brink of dread infinitude. 
O grace, unenvying of thy boon! that gavest 
Boldness to fix so earnestly my ken 
On the everlasting splendor, that I look’d, 
While sight was unconsumed; and, in that depth, 
Saw in one volume clasp’d of love, whate’er 
The universe unfolds; all properties 
Of substance and of accident, beheld, 
Compounded, yet one individual light 
The whole. And of such bond methinks I saw 
The universal form; for that whene’er 
I do but speak of it, my soul dilates 
Beyond her proper self; and, till I speak, 
One moment seems a longer lethargy, 
Than five-and-twenty ages had appear’d 
To that emprise, that first made Neptune wonder 
At Argo’s shadow darkening on his flood. 
With fixed heed, suspense and motionless, 
Wondering I gazed; and admiration still 
Was kindled as I gazed. It may not be, 
That one, who looks upon that light, can turn 
To other object, willingly, his view. 
For all the good, that will may covet, there 
Is summ’d; and all, elsewhere defective found, 
Complete. My tongue shall utter now, no more 
E’en what remembrance keeps, than could the babe’s 
That yet is moisten’d at his mother’s breast. 
Not that the semblance of the living light 
‘Was changed (that ever as at first remain’d), 
But that my vision quickening, in that sole 
Appearance, still new miracles descried, 
And toil’d me with the change. In that abyss 
Of radiance, clear and lofty, seem’d, methought, 
Three orbs of triple hue, clipped in one bound:1 
1“ Three orbs of triple hue, clipped in of the impossibility that the human soul 
one bound.’ The Trinity. This pas- should attain to what it desires to know 
sage may be compared to what Plato, of them, by means of anything akin to 


in his second pistle, enigmatically itself. 
says of a first, second, and third, and 


PARADISE 423 


And, from another, one reflected seem’d, 
As rainbow is from rainbow: and the third 
Seem’d fire, breathed equally from both. O speech! 
How feeble and how faint art thou, to give 
Conception birth. Yet this to what I saw 
Is less than little. O eternal light! 
Sole in thyself that dwell’st ; and of thyself 
Sole understood, past, present, or to come; 
Thou smiledst, on that circling,? which in thee 
Seem’d as reflected splendor, while I mused 
For I therein, methought, in its own hue 
Beheld our image painted: steadfastly 
I therefore pored upon the view. As one, 
Who versed in geometric lore, would fain 
Measure the circle; and, though pondering long 
And deeply, that beginning, which he needs, 
Finds not: e’en such was I, intent to scan 
The novel wonder, and trace out the form, 
How to the circle fitted, and therein 
How placed: but the flight was not for my wing; 
Had not a flash darted athwart my mind, 
And, in the spleen, unfolded what it sought. 
(Here vigor fail’d the towering fantasy: 

ut yet the will roll’d onward, like a wheel 
In even motion, by the love impell’d, 
That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars. 


2 “‘ That circling.” The second of the dimly beheld the mystery of the Incar: 
circles, ‘ Light of Light,” in which he nation. 


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